COLONIAL PARK Cemetery Savannah, GA
Posted by: 
GA Cacher
N 32° 04.519 W 081° 05.394
17S E 491515 N 3548787
COLONIAL PARK
This cemetery, the second in colonial Savannah, was the burying ground for the city from about 1750 until it was closed against burials in 1853.
Waymark Code: WM2JN1
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 11/12/2007
Views: 170
COLONIAL PARK served as Savannah’s cemetery for more than a century and contains over nine thousand graves. Established in 1750, by 1789 it had been expanded three times to reach the current size of six acres. Other than the small plots of land set aside for the burial of ‘strangers', Jews, and Negroes, nearly everyone who died in Savannah between 1750 and July 1st, 1853 was buried here. The cemetery closed in 1853 after becoming so crowded and unkept that citizens petitioned for a new place to bury their dead. The city then developed plantation land into Laurel Grove Cemetery, and at about the same time Bonaventure and Cathedral cemeteries were established. Some families with burials in Colonial Park moved the remains of their loved ones to these new cemeteries.
The old cemetery continued to deteriorate during the second half of the 19th century. Proposals to build a courthouse or run streets and a railroad through it threatened its existence. When the City of Savannah decided to tear down the surrounding wall, Christ Church sued to save it. The city won the law suit and demolished the wall. However, the judge also ruled that the city was to protect the gravemarkers and convert the old cemetery to a park. The Park and Tree Commission began to beautify the spot in 1896.
Markers placed by the Georgia Historical Commission stand beside a number of graves. These describe important events or individuals who contributed to the state’s history. Yet, it is important to remember that everyone buried here was important in the development of Savannah, This brief guide tells only a few of those stories. Additional information about the cemetery is located at the Georgia Historical Society on Whitaker Street.
The park is the final resting place for Savannahians who died between 1750 and 1853. You may want to stroll the shaded pathways and read some of the old tombstone inscriptions. There are several historical plaques, one of which marks the grave of Button Gwinnett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Among the distinguished dead who rest here are Archibald Bulloch, first President of Georgia; James Habersham, acting royal Governor of the Province, 1771-'73; Joseph Habersham, Postmaster General under three Presidents; Lachlan McIntosh, Major General, Continental Army; Samuel Elbert, Revolutionary soldier and Governor of Georgia; Capt. Denis L. Cottineau de Kerloguen who aided John Paul Jones in the engagement between the "Bon Homme Richard" and the "Serapis"; Hugh McCall, early historian of Georgia; Edward Green Malbone, the noted miniaturist, and Colonel John S. McIntosh, a hero of the War with Mexico.
The remains of Major General Nathanael Greene who died in 1786 reposed in the Graham vault until they were reinterred in 1901 in John Square.
The cemetery became a city park in 1896.
E Oglethorpe Ave at Abercorn St
Savannah, GA 31401
Phone: (912) 944-0455