#84: Where Savannah’s Past is Buried: Colonial Park Cemetery
“Death is never an ending, death is a change;
Death is beautiful, for death is strange;
Death is one dream out of another flowing.”
—Conrad Aiken
Where Savannah’s Past is Buried: Colonial Park Cemetery
In Savannah, they once called it the Old Burying Ground. Colonial Park Cemetery, located at the heart of Savannah’s Historic District, was the second public burial site for the Colony of Georgia. These grounds have long served as the final resting place for many of Georgia’s earliest settlers and revolutionaries.
The cemetery opened its burial grounds in 1750 and interred Savannah’s residents until 1853.
If those residing in this Old Burying Ground could speak from the grave, we would hear the true meaning of Conrad Aiken’s claim that ‘death is never an ending, but merely one dream out of another flowing.’ A Savannah native and famous poet, Aiken was familiar with the pain of death from an early age and went on to write endlessly of its psychological anguish and severe torment (see PFS #80).
Over the past three-and-one-half centuries, Colonial Park Cemetery has weathered several hurricanes and other ruinous natural storms that hit the city primarily from the Atlantic Ocean. It survived many fires that devastated, together with its residents, large parts of Savannah. Unfortunately, it also witnessed its beautiful resting grounds vandalized and otherwise suffer the ravages of time.
When the British occupied the city during the American Revolutionary War, the occupiers damaged many of its cemetery walls. To raise funds for improvements to Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannahians were solicited continuously for its support. Legend has it that even President George Washington contributed from his pocket to help rebuild cemetery walls during an official visit to Savannah in 1791.
When northern troops occupied this important Confederate port city after the Mayor of Savannah surrendered it to William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces at the end of the Civil War in December 1864, the Union army made use of the Colonial Park Cemetery to corral its horses and store its supply wagons.
It’s fair to say that Union soldiers were not kind to the Colonial Park Cemetery during Savannah’s occupation. The damage to brick walls, cemetery vaults, and headstones was substantial, yet soon after followed up by public efforts to restore what remained of the grounds at Colonial Park.
The cemetery’s entry archway, painted en Plein air here, was erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1913 to honor the several American Revolutionary War patriots buried here. The entry archway is located on the northwest corner of Abercorn Street and Oglethorpe Avenue.
As I discussed in my writings for several Postcards from Savannah painted in the Bonaventure Cemetery (see PFS #77, PFS #78, and PFS #79), by the 1840s burial land available in the city was sparse. In addition, following several outbreaks of the dreaded ‘yellow fever’ in Savannah, public health concerns for suitable burial space and proper internment practices became paramount to fearful citizens.
By 1852, lots were made available at the newly established Laurel Grove Cemetery (see PFS #33). Public health officials encouraged Savannah’s citizens to remove the remains of family members buried at the Colonial Park Cemetery and relocate them to Laurel Grove. Of the 10,000 burials in the first one-hundred years of Colonial Park Cemetery’s history, approximately 600 remain today.
