The Future of Greenwood Cemetery

The City of Atlanta’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has been exploring the possibility of acquiring the historic Greenwood Cemetery, home to the Memorial of the Six Million as well as significant burial plots for many Atlanta synagogues. Since an initial meeting two years ago with the Trustee of Greenwood Cemetery, who had expressed interest in selling, Atlanta’s DPR has been busy meeting with various community members.

“We’re meeting with the Jewish community, we’re meeting with the African American community, we met with the Greek Orthodox community – just all the different stakeholders that have different individuals buried here at Greenwood,” said Commissioner Justin Cutler of the Atlanta DPR. “Then, we’re talking with the neighbors about what they’d like to see. We’re still kicking tires, trying to figure out what the options might be. I think [the] biggest concern [we’ve heard] is the level of maintenance that’s needed out here to refix the roads, to fix some of the infrastructure.”

Many synagogues have been paying for additional maintenance and upkeep, although even the interest meetings have helped ameliorate some issues.

“Some of them were hatching new ideas,” recalled Cutler, discussing a meeting in October. “Like, ‘Hey, if you’re already paying, and I’m already paying, why don’t we just hire the same contractor and maybe reduce our costs?’ It was interesting to see how just getting people together has sparked renewed interest.”

But issues like potholes and other maintenance, while something the Atlanta DPR hopes they could address with the community in the future, are not their primary concern with the cemetery, Cutler noted.

“We don’t really see ourselves in the cemetery-operations business. Our primary objective is to acquire the natural resources that are along the edges,” said Cutler. “That gives us opportunities for regional trail connections to John A. White Park, to the Lionel Hampton-Beecher Natural Area, and really creates a more connected City of Atlanta. […] It’s great to have a park here and a park there, but how are the parks connected to each other and how are you safely getting from one park to another, and how are you safely getting from your house to that park? We want to make sure that that’s a priority.”

Cutler expects this possibility would be particularly helpful for the cemetery as well.

“I think more eyes and more use creates safety, creates more interpretation opportunities – so people come to the Memorial for the Six Million, they understand that this is a national historic site, that it’s [one of] the first Holocaust memorial[s] in the United States,” said Cutler. “We can have a conversation about that. Currently, people don’t really know about it that much.”

“I think, in that instance, Oakland [Cemetery] is a good example for the kind of visitorship that it gets, and the interaction that it gets,” said Liza Mueller, a project manager in charge of planning and design for Atlanta DPR. “This is an untapped Atlanta history resource, and becoming a park, if it were to be, would help elevate some of that. We would be able to help elevate some of that history.”

“There are civil rights leaders buried here, [like] Rev. James Orange. Truett Cathy is buried here, who started Chick-fil-A; there’s a Chinese contingency, the Chinese Freemasons, who came and have since left Atlanta, so that’s an interesting narrative,” added Cutler. “There’s a lot of different points of history that are here that aren’t talked about.”

Besides this, Cutler does not expect Atlanta DPR’s acquisition would cause any significant changes to the way the cemetery is run.

“We’d still be open to burials. We’d still be open to people coming and walking the roads for exercise.”

Regardless, and despite the time invested, an actual acquisition is still a long way off, as Atlanta DPR wants to hear from all concerned parties before making any significant plans.

“Each meeting that we have we find more people that we ought to talk to, or who might be able to help us get us connected with someone that we’ve missed or are trying to find,” said Mueller. “There are still people out there that I would consider stakeholders and, by that, I simply mean that there are sections here in the cemetery that are represented that we would like to be able to check in with and see – do they have any hopes, dreams, desires? Do they have a particular interest in what this might look like?”

Any such stakeholders are encouraged to reach out to the City of Atlanta’s Department of Parks and Recreation and share their thoughts.