Historic. That’s the first word that comes to mind when you visit the Oakland Cemetery.
The cemetery not only preserves history, but it has a rich history of its own. And in November, the cemetery scored a historic victory when the Atlanta Regional Commission named it a 2014 Developments of Excellence Great Place Award winner.
The city fathers founded the cemetery in 1850 as the Atlanta Graveyard with only six acres of land, meaning it to be a small garden cemetery. In 1872, it was renamed due to the many oak and magnolia trees in Atlanta and expanded to its current 48 acres of land.
There are many famous residents in the Oakland Cemetery, including Civil War soldiers, authors, mayors and athletes. Margaret Mitchell, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gone With the Wind, is buried in Oakland, along with Maynard Jackson, the first African-American mayor of Atlanta, and Bobby Jones, amateur golfer and founder of the Masters Golf Tournament. A stone lion, also known as the Lion of Atlanta, guards almost 3,000 unknown dead Confederate soldiers.
In the late 1800s, the cemetery fell into serious neglect. Graves were abandoned when relatives stopped visiting, gardens were left unattended, and the cemetery was vandalized. The Oakland Cemetery changed from a popular destination for families to an overgrown graveyard.
Not until almost 100 years later did the cemetery’s fortunes turn around. In 1976, the Oakland Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Historic Oakland Foundation was created. The mission of the Historic Oakland Foundation, with the assistance of the City of Atlanta, is to preserve, restore, enhance and share the Oakland Cemetery with the public as an important cultural resource and as an island of tranquility in the heart of the city. The city and the foundation have worked together to stabilize the cemetery and make it an inviting place for all Atlantans, as it was in the 19th century.
This November, the Oakland Cemetery was named the 2014 Great Place winner in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s annual Developments of Excellence Awards. The ARC, through its DOE Awards, honors influential private and public development projects that advance the ARC’s goals mentioned in PLAN 2040, ARC’s regional development plan. The overall goal of the plan is to sustain metro Atlanta’s livability and prosperity through the year 2040. The Great Place Award honors the cemetery’s embodiment of these ideals as a model for future growth.
“The Historic Oakland Foundation is grateful for the support it receives from so many individuals, foundations, and corporations as we continue to care for this irreplaceable Atlanta landmark,” Historic Oakland Foundation executive director David S. Moore said in a press release. “We are so appreciative of this ‘Great Place Award’ and assure the Atlanta Regional Commission that we will continue to work hard along with the City of Atlanta to keep Oakland one of Atlanta’s great places.”
Moore is not alone in his pride of this accomplishment. “We are very pleased to have received the Atlanta Regional Commission’s prestigious award,” said Pamela Henman, the marketing and public relations manager at the Oakland Cemetery. “The win means a great deal to the staff, volunteers and the many supporters at Oakland Cemetery, as we all work to preserve and sustain this historic site.”
