Bonaventure Cemetery is a

rural cemetery A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...

located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel ''

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published in 1994 and follows the story of an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. Subtitled ''A Savannah S ...

'' by

John Berendt John Berendt (born December 5, 1939) is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'', which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Biography Ber ...

, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. It is the largest of the city's municipal cemeteries, containing nearly . The entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate tomb of William Gaston, a prominent Savannahian merchant.

History

The cemetery is located on the former site of

Bonaventure Plantation Bonaventure Plantation was a plantation founded in colonial Savannah, Province of Georgia, on land now occupied by Greenwich and Bonaventure cemeteries. The site was , including a plantation house and private cemetery, located on the Wilmington ...

, originally owned by

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846,

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

Josiah Tattnall III Commodore Josiah Tattnall (November 9, 1795 – June 14, 1871) was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812, the Second Barbary War and the Mexican–American War. He later served in the Confederate Navy during the American C ...

sold the plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger.''Ease and Elegance, Madeira and Murder: The Social Life of Savannah's City Hotel'', Malcolm Bell, Jr. (1992), p. 572 The first burials took place in 1850, and three years later, Peter Wiltberger himself was entombed in a family vault. Major William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. On July 7, 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery. In 1867

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

began his ''Thousand Mile Walk'' to Florida and the Gulf. In October he sojourned for six days and nights in the Bonaventure cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home. He found the cemetery even then breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, "Camping in the Tombs."

"Part of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak (''
Quercus virginiana ''Quercus virginiana'', also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old Sou ...
''), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins. The most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos. But of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss ( ''Tillandsia usneoides''). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive. There are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone. Bonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure. I gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light."
- "Camping in the Tombs," from ''A Thousand Mile Walk''

Greenwich Cemetery became an addition to Bonaventure in 1933.

Operations

Citizens of Savannah and others may purchase interment rights in Bonaventure. The cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. Adjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery is the privately owned and newer Forest Lawn Cemetery and

Columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

Department of Cemeteries

The main office of the City of Savannah's Department of Cemeteries is located on the Bonaventure Cemetery grounds in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance.

Bonaventure Historical Society

The cemetery became the subject of a non-profit group, the Bonaventure Historical Society, in May 1997. The group has compiled an index of the burials at the cemetery.

''Bird Girl''

The cover photograph for the best-selling book ''

'', taken by

Jack Leigh John David Leigh II (November 8, 1948 – May 19, 2004) was an American photographer and author, known for the cover photograph on John Berendt's novel ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil''. The photograph featured the ''Bird Girl'' statu ...

, featured an evocative sculpture of a young girl, the so-called ''

Bird Girl ''Bird Girl'' is a sculpture made in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson in Lake Forest, Illinois. It was sculpted at Ragdale, her family's summer home, and achieved fame when it was featured on the cover of the 1994 non-fiction novel ''Midnight in t ...

'', that had been in the cemetery, essentially unnoticed, for over 50 years. After the publication of the book, the sculpture was relocated from the cemetery in 1997 for display in

Telfair Museums Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Histo ...

in Savannah. In late 2014, the statue was moved to a dedicated space in the Telfair Museums'

Jepson Center for the Arts Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Histo ...

on West York Street, in Savannah.

Notable burials

* Samuel B. Adams, interim Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia *

Conrad Aiken Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short ...

, novelist and poet * Robert Houstoun Anderson (1835–1888), 2nd Lieutenant US Army, General CSA Army, Chief of Police City of Savannah *

Middleton Barnwell Middleton Stuart Barnwell (September 9, 1882 – May 6, 1957) was the seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho and the fifth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. Barnwell was the 349th bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United S ...

, bishop *

Edythe Chapman Edythe Chapman (October 8, 1863 – October 15, 1948) was an American stage and silent film actress. Career Born in Rochester, New York, Chapman began her stage career as early as 1898 when she appeared in New York City in ''The Charity Bal ...

, actress * Hugh Comer (1842–1900), president of the

Georgia Central Railway The Georgia Central Railway operates about of former Seaboard Coast Line track from Macon, Georgia through Dublin, Georgia and Vidalia, Georgia to Savannah, Georgia. It also operates about of trackage between Savannah and Riceboro, Georgia, swi ...

* William B. Hodgson (1801–1871), diplomat and scholar. Although he arranged with (and paid) William H. Wiltberger for burial lot 13 of section D, he was interred in lot 19 of the same section. The family of

Noble Jones Noble Jones (1702 – November 2, 1775), an English-born carpenter, was one of the first settlers of the Province of Georgia and one of its leading officials. He was born in Herefordshire. As part of Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe's 42nd (old) Regi ...

, including his son Noble Wimberly Jones, occupies lot 13. * Anna Colquitt Hunter (1892–1985), co-founder of

Historic Savannah Foundation Historic Savannah Foundation is a preservation organization founded in 1955 and based in Savannah, Georgia, United States. In 1950, the four-story Wetter House on East Oglethorpe was demolished.Noble Wimberly Jones Noble Wimberly Jones (c. 1723 – January 9, 1805) was an American physician and statesman from Savannah, Georgia. A leading Georgia patriot in the American Revolution, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1781 and 1782. ...

(c. 1723–1805), physician and statesman *

, photographer, author * Hugh W. Mercer, Civil War Army officer and Confederate general * Johnny Mercer, singer/songwriter and great-grandson of Hugh W. Mercer * James Neill, actor * Edward Padelford (1799–1870), businessman for whom Savannah's Padelford Ward is named''A Short Biography of Edward Padelford''
Larry Tinker (

Armstrong Atlantic State University Armstrong may refer to: Places * Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places Antarctica * Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands Argentina * Armstrong, Santa Fe Australia * Armstrong, Victoria Canada * Armstrong, British Columbia * Armstrong, O ...

) * Marie Louise Scudder Myrick (1854–1934), First Female Owner, Editor, Publisher of a Southern US Newspaper (1895), ''The Americus Times-Recorder'' * John Stoddard, president of the

Georgia Historical Society The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and tau ...

and the first president of Evergreen Cemetery Company * Josiah Tattnall Jr. (1765–1803), Senator, General, and Georgia Governor *

(1795–1871), Commodore USN, Captain CSA Navy *

Edward Telfair Edward Telfair (1735 – September 17, 1807) was a Scottish-born American Founding Father, politician and slave trader who served as the governor of Georgia from 1786 to 1787 and again from 1790 to 1793. He was a member of the Continental Congres ...

, governor *

Mary Telfair Mary Telfair (January 28, 1791 – June 2, 1875)Mary Telfair
–

, philanthropist and art collector, daughter of Edward * F. Bland Tucker, Episcopal minister and hymn writer *

John Walz John Walz (31 August 1844 – 1922) was a German-American sculptor most famous for his works created in Savannah, Georgia, United States. Early life John Walz was born 31 August 1844 in Württemberg, Germany, to John and Elizabeth Walz. When Walz ...

(1844–1922), sculptor * Gracie Watson, famous statue at her gravesite, 6 years old * Claudius Charles Wilson (1831–1863), Civil War Confederate brigadier General * Rosa Louise Woodberry (1869–1932), journalist, educator * Bartholomew Zouberbuhler (1719–1766), early Presbyterian minister *Spanish–American War Veterans from Worth Bagley Camp #10 in Section K. It is the nation's second-largest area dedicated to those killed in the Spanish–American War.

Gallery

File:Bonaventure cemetery - theus7351.JPG, Theus tomb File:Bonaventure cemetery - baldwin 7356.JPG, Baldwin tomb File:BoneventureCemetry21.jpg, "Gracie" File:BoneventureCemetry28.jpg, Lawton grave File:GenRHAnderson.jpg, R H Anderson File:AndersonFamilyGravesite.jpg, Anderson Family Gravesite File:SpanAmWarVets.jpg, Spanish-American War Veterans File:Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA, US (22).jpg, Statue

References

External links

Bonaventure Historical Society
* {{National Register of Historic Places Cemeteries in Savannah, Georgia Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Protected areas of Chatham County, Georgia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) National Register of Historic Places in Savannah, Georgia Rural cemeteries 1846 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)