Cemetery
Early
1850
City of Atlanta
Location approximate

Oakland Cemetery, the city burying ground (1850)

Atlanta bought six acres southeast of town in 1850 for a public burial ground, first called the Atlanta or City Cemetery. It was renamed Oakland in 1872.

See it on the map All Early records

The record

The Historic Oakland Foundation says early city officials bought six acres in 1850 and that the grounds had grown to 48 acres by 1867, mainly because of the war; the GHS marker also describes a 48-acre cemetery. Wikipedia names Dr. James Nissen, a visiting physician who died in 1850, as its earliest burial. In 1856 James E. Williams built a house on the high ground that later became part of the cemetery (GHS). The cemetery has separate African American and Jewish sections and was listed on the National Register in 1976.