Colonial Park and Bonaventure Cemeteries

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. Nearly everyone who died in Savannah between 1750 and July of 1853 was buried there. 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.

 

 

Bonaventure Cemetery was developed on the historically-significant site of Bonaventure Plantation. The peaceful setting rests on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah. The site was purchased for a private cemetery in 1846 and became a public cemetery in 1907. This charming site has been a world famous tourist destination for more than 150 years due to the old tree-lined roadways, the many notable persons interred, the unique cemetery sculpture and architecture, and the folklore associated with the site and the people.

This is so elaborate!

Little Gracie is the most popular resident in Bonaventure.

The Veterans Area

For some unknown reason, there were a bunch of

Corvettes in the cemetery today!