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Circa 1901. "Bonaventure Cemetery. Savannah, Georgia." The locals say it's best not to travel alone here after sundown. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
Savannah is known, to locals anyway, as the "Most Haunted City in America." Granted ghost tours are also big business, so it makes economic sense to keep that stature going, but having taken a tour myself, I must admit to being legitimately "wigged out." I think the scariest part was learning that a certain block of the city, apparently the most haunted region, was built over the unmarked graves of hundredss of slaves. If nothing else, great history lessons!
Robert Houston Anderson went to West Point and served in the US Army in New York and Washington Territory. He joined the Confederate Army in 1861 and saw action at the Battle of Fort McAllister, the defense of Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign. After the Civil War he was police chief of Savannah.
Bonaventure is a beautifully kept cemetery on the banks of
the Savannah River on the outskirts on the city. It's something to see because of its natural setting, lush vegetation, and the variety of the architecture and design of the its many headstones and mausoleums. Well-know songwriter Johnny Mercer (1909-1976 writer of over 1500 song lyrics including 'Moon River' and 'Days of Wine and Roses'), a native of Savannah, is one of many buried there. The epitaph on his headstone is the title of one of the many pop standards he wrote: "And the Angels Sing."
On the night of October 29th 1896, a hurricane hit Savannah causing the cemetery to be 'a scene of ruin'.You can make out where some trees were felled in this photo but the damage has been repaired by the looks of things.
Read more here
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00C15FF385F1B738DDDA8...
This is the "garden of good and evil" of John Berendt's famous book about Savannah. The iconic "Bird Girl" statue on the book's cover wouldn't have been found in Bonaventure Cemetery when this photo was taken, or indeed today. It wasn't installed until the 1930s, and after the book was published it was moved to a museum.
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