The Great Necropolis--Atlanta's Westview Cemetery

The Atlanta Metro Area sprawls over an immense area that officially covers a large portion of Georgia and includes a small portion of neighboring Alabama. Of its great cemeteries, only Westview matches that sprawling nature. This immense cemetery holds the record as the largest in the Southeast at 582 acres, of which only about half has actually been developed. It currently holds nearly 100,000 interments and far outpaces Atlanta's other great cemetery, Oakland, which is a mere 48 acres and contains around 70,000 interments.

A row of mausolea with the crenellated water tower in the background.
Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Looking towards one of the many hills. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

Looking down one of the many hills. Photo 2011, by Lewis
Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Looking towards one of the more well-to-do sections from the
potter's field. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Unlike Oakland, which has been celebrated for its history, architecture and importance, Westview hasn't received as much acclaim. Oakland has been the subject of a few books while Westview remains a quiet giant in the background. Interestingly, both cemeteries played parts in the Civil War as battles raged around the city. From a house atop a hill near the small municipal cemetery that was the original six acres of Oakland, General John Bell Hood directed Confederate forces during the battle of Atlanta. It was also the Civil War that caused Oakland's first major expansion when a place to bury Confederate dead was needed. Oakland has since grown to occupy the farm house where Bell stayed which was replaced with a building containing the sexton's office and living quarters and marked with a bell tower used to summon workers.

The land now occupied by Westview Cemetery, however, was the scene of actual fighting. On the 28th of July 1864, as the Union Army under General Sherman vied to take control of Atlanta, thus seizing the heart of the Confederacy, a portion of the Army of the Tennessee under General O.O. Howard was ordered to seize and cut the railroad as it entered the western side of the city. The armies engaged near a small chapel called Ezra Church. Though the Confederate forces failed to repulse the Union attack, the army did not cut the western railroad. When Westview Cemetery was created in 1884, it incorporated some of the Confederate trenches and later a monument was built to those who died there.

The Confederate section from the rear. Those buried
in this section are Confederate veterans who died years
after the war. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights
reserved.

The graves of Confederate veterans are arranged in a circular
pattern arround the monument. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

Near the Confederate section is a crenellated water tower.
Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

The water tower looking up from the base. Photo 2011, by Lewis
Powell IV, all rights reserved.

A private corporation created Westview in 1884 and built a large gatehouse. The cemetery became a popular burial place for Atlanta's elite families: governors, politicians and businessmen with names like Dorsey, Woodruff, Grady, Hartsfield, Allen, Candler, Eggleston, Rhodes and Haverty. Since that time, the list has included sports stars and even rappers. In 1943, the cemetery constructed what is perhaps the largest mausoleum in the world in the center of the cemetery. Referred to as "The Abbey," this expansive Venetian-style structure contains space for over 11,000 burials plus a chapel and space for family visitation. The magnificent three-story building is highlighted with stained glass, murals, mosaics, ironwork and ornate stone work.

Looking towards the Abbey from the cemetery. Photo 2011,
by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved. 

An exuberant facade. The architect incorporated the Georgia
state seal and the Atlanta city seal into this design. Photo 2011,
by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Looking into the loggia from a side window. This is underneath the
face pictured above. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Inside the loggia. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

The Abbey's belltower. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all
rights reserved.

The porte cochere. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all
rights reserved.

A different facade. Under this loggia is a mosaic depicting
the risen Christ. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights
reserved.

A tower window. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV, all rights
reserved.

Plaques around the building are carved with quotes
regarding death. This quote is from William Cullen
Bryant's poem, Thanatopsis. Photo 2011, by Lewis
Powell IV, all rights reserved.

Unfortunately when I visited, the Abbey was closed, though the signs said it was open until 4:30 PM. I was, however, blown away by the enormous cemetery and some of its remarkable monuments. I was guided by a good friend, Benjamin Lewis, who has gotten to know the cemetery quite well. His introduction to this massive location came as he was looking for the burial location of his great-great grandfather who was hanged as a criminal and then buried in an unmarked grave in the potter's field section of the cemetery. Certainly it was interesting to see the huge shifts in the cemetery between the graves of industrial and commercial barons and the humble of the potter's field, the massive monuments and then the lowly and sometimes unmarked graves of the less well-off. In his rambles through the cemetery, Ben had also stumbled on the grave of Thurman Cain, brother of recent GOP presidential candidate, Herman Cain, a native of Atlanta.

Two graves were of particular interest to me, those of Robert Shaw and Joel Chandler Harris. Shaw, longtime conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and one of the greatest choral conductors and arrangers of the 20th century, is buried in a simply marked grave next to his wife. I had the honor of singing the Mozart Requiem under him a couple years before his death and it was an enlightening experience. Lacrimosa dies illa. 

Robert Shaw's simple marker.

Joel Chandler Harris' grave consists of a large, rough-hewn boulder with a bronze plaque and a bas-relief likeness of the master storyteller. Harris, a journalist, collected and published stories he heard from slaves and former slaves. Known as the "Uncle Remus" stories, these stories are the descendants of African folktales and they have enshrined characters like Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear into the pantheon of beloved, yet also vilified, characters. Some African-Americans consider the stories, which are written to imitate the dialect of the slaves, to be offensive and racist. Harris has also been accused of cultural theft while others argue that his publishing of these stories was an act of cultural subversion. Regardless, his home, The Wren's Nest, has been preserved as a museum not far from Westview and his stories continue to be told there and throughout the South.

Joel Chandler Harris' great boulder. Photo 2011, by Lewis Powell IV,
all rights reserved.

With my interest in the paranormal, I did a quick search for ghost tales from Westview, but alas, I could find none. With Westview's tremendous history, it would be no surprise that a few shades are still wafting about the corridors of the Abbey or down the lanes of Atlanta's sprawling necropolis.

My thanks to Benjamin Lewis for sharing this treasure with me.

Sources
National Park Service. "Battle Summary: Ezra Church." Accessed 24 December
     2011.
Westview Cemetery. "The History of Westview." Accessed 24 December 2011.
Westview Cemetery. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 24 December 2011.