Sunday at the Park that is a Cemetery

I had been wanting to get out of the neighborhood on a weekend that held no baseball and no chores and do some exploring. My two youngest boys joined me as we explored Oakland Cemetery, about a mile east of downtown Atlanta. It was a beautiful, breezy day and we were practically alone (except for those buried). This cemetery began in 1850 and contains hundreds of trees and lots of Victorian art. It was meant to be enjoyed by families. There are walkways, a visitors' center, lectures and tours. My oldest son had been here on a filed trip in 3rd grade. I hadn't visited in almost 20 years. This sign describes how the rich, the poor, Jewish, Christian, black and white, Union and Confederate soldiers are buried here.


In the photo above you can see the Georgia capitol building in the background with its roof made of gold mined from a town north of Atlanta called Dahlonega. This mountain town was the site of the first gold rush prior to Out West, and where they had a U.S. Mint before the civil war (the "D" on a coin that now stands for "Denver" used to stand for "Dahlonega" many, many years ago.The boys loved peeking into every mausoleum there. I did too.

Here is where Margaret Mitchell rests with her husband. She wrote Gone With the Wind while living in a boarding house on Peachtree Street she called "The Dump". It is less than 10 miles from here. In her novel, Rhett and Scarlett lived on Peachtree Street when they first married. Ms. Mitchell died from her injuries when she was hit by a car after she stepped into the street on Peachtree Street a few blocks north of where she wrote her novel -- she was 48 years old and going to the movies with her husband.
There are Civil War soldiers buried under lawns like this. In another area, there is a granite statue of a wounded lion (no photo) watching over hundreds of unnamed soldiers. There is history right next to each of the brick walls that surround the cemetery. From its most elevated hill, a Commender once viewed the Battle of Atlanta in the summer of 1864. Around 1900 textile mills opened right next to the cemetery and the Scot-Irish from the Appalachian north part of Georgia came to work there and lived in shotgun homes called Cabbagetown--till 1977.

In 1999 those mills were being renovated. Do you remember on the news years ago where a crane worker was stranded hundreds of feet in the air, the crane was on fire, the mill was on fire and a helicopter lowered a young firefighter to this worker who then clung to the firefighter and was lifted away to safety? That was those lofts right next to Oakland Cemetery. Two years ago a tornado came through downtown Atlanta and tore up those lofts and this cemetery but they are all repaired now.


There are several areas owned by different synagogues, whose Russian immigrant style was to have tombstones right next to each other like a "forest". One read, "Mother and child were hit by lightning". On the other side of the brick wall is a commercial area of town with some restaurants. One is called "Six Feet Under". But its patrons sit on a three-story patio and can look over Oakland Cemetery.

We walked to a different eatery and had tacos and cupcakes. They have Candlelight Tours here on the weekend and I may go back in the fall to learn more about the history surrounding those who are resting here.