Oakland Cemetery

Austell Family Mausoleum, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

Oakland Cemetery was established on six acres of city land in 1850. By 1872 it had grown to its present 48 acres, adding the Confederate, Jewish, Black sections and a Potter's field. It is estimated that 70,000 people are buried here.

Prominent Atlanta families built beautiful monuments and mausoleums for themselves over the years. All the plots were sold by 1884, but burials still occur in these family plots. The city contributed  a spot from a small open space it owns for the burial of Maynard Jackson, the first black mayor of Atlanta. Oakland was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.


This photo of the Confederate section along with the Confederate Obelisk was taken on Confederate Memorial Day in 2011. The section contains 6,900 Confederate graves plus another 3,000 unknowns. During the Civil War the wounded from battles to the north were sent to Atlanta hospitals, the largest cluster of which were located just a half mile from Oakland.

The 65-foot Confederate Obelisk, made from local Stone Mountain granite, was dedicated in 1874 as a project of the Atlanta Ladies Memorial Association. For years it was the tallest structure in the city.
















There are 16 Union soldiers buried in Oakland. All died in local hospitals during the War. Their graves are separated from those of the Confederate soldiers.



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