![]() ![]() “And although the number of interments is now comparatively limited, the propriety of permitting them, even with the present restrictions, is very questionable.” The city was in desperate straits in regard to a new cemetery, but at three-and-a-half miles from downtown, Bonaventure seemed a bridge too far for some. “The old brick cemetery has been filled to overflowing for years,” observed a correspondence within the JDaily Republican, referring to today’s Colonial Park. Savannah Daily Republican, December 19, 1846 Even today it remains the eastern-most tract of land owned by the city and maintained by the city’s Park and Tree Department.īut it had all begun as a modest plantation. The city’s 1845 hesitation in purchasing the tract ultimately lasted more than sixty years not until 1907 did the City of Savannah finally envelop Bonaventure. Unlike Laurel Grove, Bonaventure was a private corporation cemetery-the Evergreen Company-run first by Peter Wiltberger, and later under his son William. ![]() Laurel Grove Cemetery was the answer, arising out of the same time period as Bonaventure, dedicated on November 10, 1852. As development of the town began approaching these cemeteries on the South Common, the city was forced to consider opening cemetery sites outside of town. More about all three of these cemeteries may be visited in another post on this blog. By the 1840s there were three active cemeteries downtown-the old South Broad Street Cemetery (which had already been full for a generation), and two on the South Common… a replacement cemetery several blocks to the south on Abercorn Street and site of today’s Calhoun Square, which had been opened in 1819 but never been well-received by the public… and to the east of that was the African-American cemetery from 1810. The Evergreen Cemetery of Bonaventure was incorporated on December 27, 1847, and with that the same man who had made a name for himself providing accommodations for the living had now expanded his business to accommodate the dead as well.īonaventure Cemetery became the first large-scale burial ground to be located outside of town. Wiltberger (1791-1853), the same man who had begun the Pulaski House Hotel on Johnson Square, was now in the cemetery business. Joseph Cumming, acting as Tatnall’s agent, offered the city a chance to buy the old Tatnall plantation for $6000. However, cemeteries do not generally sell real estate, just the rights to be interred on it.Savannah Daily Republican, August 23, 1845 The phrase "selling interment rights" was historically referred to as selling cemetery lots.
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