Oakland Cemetery viewed as one of GA’s most treasured historic sites

ATLANTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Oakland Cemetery is one of Georgia’s most treasured historic sites.

Oakland Cemetery is the final resting place for many Georgians including author Margaret Michell and Mayor Ivan Allen.

Many visitors may come across the graveyard sites of famous mayors, governors, and athletes.

“Oakland has six governors and 27 mayors. Some of the notable residents are Maynard Jackson, which is the city’s first black mayor, and Bobby Jones, the famous golfer. One of our most recent additions was Kenny Rogers,” says Richard Harker, the executive director of Historic Oakland Foundation.

“We are standing here at Maynard Jackson’s gravesite. He was the first African American mayor of Atlanta and of a large major city in the south. He played a major part to get the Olympics here and to create more jobs,” says Charvis Buckholts of the Oakland Cemetery Foundation.

One popular spot for visitors is where golfer Bobby Jones is laid to rest.

“This is one of the most famous ones – and that time around the Masters people will stop here and on the way to the tournament. We had a bus of tourists who were headed there and who stopped off and left balls.  The legend goes if you leave a ball here it’ll take a few strokes off your game,” says Harker. “People leave golf balls, pennies, cookies and people will leave all type of mementos to mark their visit here.”

Another area, which is called Potter’s Field, has more than 7,000 people buried without stones because they were too poor.

“They could not afford a space in the cemetery. But everybody needed a place to be buried. This monument is a monument to everyone who is buried here,” Harker says.

Oakland Cemetery sits blocks from the Georgia State Capitol in Downtown Atlanta.

At 48 acres and with more than 70,000 gravesites, there’s still more room and land for people to be buried here, they just have to buy a plot.

It’s no just the graveyard sites and tours that brings people to Oakland Cemetery. There’s also weddings, festivals, and other events and cultural celebrations including Juneteenth and Halloween festivities.

“In 1850, the city of Atlanta needed a cemetery, and they purchased six acres right here on Memorial Drive. We’re about a mile east of the capitol building in the heart of South East. A bit down the road is Grant Park. It was called City Cemetery until 1870s when city council changed it to Oakland Cemetery naming it after all the canopies here at the cemetery,” says Harker.

Oakland Cemetery brings in more than 150,000 visitors every year to discover the untold stories of Georgia’s history.

“I think everyone who comes in here falls in love – through the stories of the city here and through the cemetery and people residing here. This is where Atlanta’s history lives,” Harker says.

Oakland Cemetery is funded through private donors and waking tour admission tickets.

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