Oak Grove Chapel, or Wake House. Oak Grove Cemetery Society President Robert M. Gindhart III writes: For the record, recent research has revealed the true story of Oak Grove Chapel which was completed in April 1902 by the Ladies Oak Grove Cemetery Society. The chapel [originally thought built in the 1880s] was built in one year with donations of materials, cash, and labor. The chapel had a 1902 value of $400. Three purposes for the chapel were to provide a place: for funerals in the cemetery; to hold Oak Grove Cemetery Society meetings and to store their garden tools. That Society was founded on March 2,1901 and is not to be confused with today’s Oak Grove Cemetery Society founded on March 18, 2014. In fact, when today’s Society chose the name, we knew nothing of the earlier group founded 113 years earlier. Their work is today our work. The ladies found Oak Grove in exactly the same condition as did today’s Society. The chapel was restored in 2017.
Oak Grove was established by the city of Brunswick in 1838 as its first public cemetery and was originally designed to encompass ten acres. I received a nice message from Oak Grove Cemetery Society President Robert M. Gindhart III and he updated some of the history of the site: The cemetery was finally reduced to the size we see today in 1901 to make way for the new Brunswick and Birmingham Railroad roadbed. This greatly altered the western boundary of Oak Grove, moving the fence 50 feet eastward. Fifty graves were exhumed and most of those were brought within the new cemetery boundary. Were all exhumed? Recently, OGCS, using Ground Penetrating Radar, identified hundreds of unknown graves. We have added those to our electronic map found at: www.oakgrovetour.com identified by beginning with letter U and a blue dot.
Oak Grove contains a nice variety of Victorian funerary monuments and is one of Brunswick’s most fascinating public spaces. It shouldn’t be overlooked.
The memorials that follow were randomly selected and appear in no particular order
Eula L. Brown Dunwoody [1862-1890].Nightingale Family PlotFrances Nicolau Nightingale [1871-1948]. Founded in 1920, with Maya Stevens Bamford, Miss Nightingale’s School for Girls (Nightingale-Bramford School) in Manhattan. Graduates include Millicent Fenwick and Gloria Vanderbilt.James D. Kenny [1828-1885]. Irish-born sailor.Cornelia M. W. Boone [1847-1876]. Yellow fever victim.Captain Douglas G. RIsley [1838-1882]. Captain Risley served the Union in the Civil War and founded the first public school for African-Americans in Brunswick in 1870. Major Urbanus Dart, Sr. [1800-1883]. Upon his death in 1883, Major Dart was the oldest known citizen of Brunswick. He was associated with the first railroad chartered in Georgia and served in the state legislature. William Harvey Anderson, Sr. [1837-1896] & Alethia I. Williams Anderson [1839-1904]. William Anderson, Sr., was a prominent contractor and builder in Brunswick and was responsible for the construction of Brunswick’s City Hall.Anderson Mausoleum (Detail)Anderson Mausoleum (Detail)Anderson Mausoleum (Detail)Hirsch & May Mausolea. Benjamin Moses Hirsch [1840-1927]. Bertha Elizabeth Hirshfield Hirsch [1842-1912]. Julius May [1863-1915]. Emma M. Hirsch May [1870-1946]. The Hirsch & May families were prominent Jewish merchants in Brunswick.Samuel Bruce Moore [1835-1857].Joseph Florence Lasserre [1844-1919] & Family. This monument was likely erected upon the death of Lasserre’s daughter, Ida, who died in 1898. Lasserre was a native of France and served as Captain in Harris’s Independent Co. Brunswick Riflemen, 26th Infantry Regiment of Georgia.Satilla G. Brown [1857-1901]Sir Rosendo Torras [1851-1929]. Rosendo Torras was a native of Spain who was knighted by King Gustaf of Sweden for service to the crown. He came to Brunswick in the 1890s as captain of a sailing ship. His son, Fernando J. Torras, was an engineer and the builder and namesake of the causeway to St. Simons Island. Unidentified Brick CryptWilliam Williams [1800-1885]. Demis Broad Williams [1814-1877].O’Connor Family PlotWilliam Walter Watkins [1841-1885].James Alexander Clubb, Jr. [1827-1889]. Clubb was the lighthouse keeper on Little Cumberland Island and was the pilot of the slave ship The Wanderer. Townsend Plot Starburst FinialAnnie Louise Blain [1884-1891].Annie Elizabeth Scranton Blain [1845-1880].
Oak Grove is open from dawn until dusk. Parking is free, on the street beside the cemetery.
Savannah High School traces its origins to Chatham Academy, a school chartered in 1788. During the Great Depression, this campus was built by the Public Works Administration around the foundation of a hotel whose developers went bankrupt. It was said to be the largest public school building in the United States at the time.
The school was integrated relatively early, in 1963, by twelve African-American students. In 1997, Savannah High relocated and this campus became the Savannah Arts Academy.
Ardsley Park-Chatham Crescent Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Moved in 1970 to save it from demolition, this ornate Victorian cottage was built by W. W. Aimar. It is known today as the King-Tisdell Cottage for Eugene and Sara King, and Mrs. King’s second husband, Robert Tisdell. It is now home to the Museum of Black History and is an integral part of Savannah’s most historic 19th century African-American neighborhood.
2011 Bull Street is a great example of urban renewal. Its origins an be traced to the structure on the lower floor, a mid-century gas station and garage. A few years ago, two floors were added to the otherwise pedestrian structure and from it emerged a new interpretation of Streamline Moderne, a hybrid Art Deco style which is quite rare today. Thanks to John Deaderick for assistance in identification.
From is construction in 1852 until the 1920s, this little one-room schoolhouse served students of Dorchester Village. It was located adjacent to the Dorchester Presbyterian Church and was all but lost when the Selectmen of the Midway Church and Society saved and relocated it to the “new” Dorchester School nearby. This photograph dates to 2011.
I identified this as the Miller House, using a photograph in Virginia Fraser Evans’s Liberty County: A Pictorial History. Colonel Miller was a Confederate veteran associated with the Liberty Independent Troop and one of the most prominent members of the community, serving as a leader in the Walthourville Presbyterian Church. It is also known as the Miller-Dryden House.
Vanishing Coastal Georgia Photographs by Brian Brown 