The Beauty of Bonaventure

One of my favorite cemeteries (and, yes, I know that sounds odd) is Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.  Bonaventure is more than a cemetery; it’s more like a collection of art.  Bonaventure is also known for the best-selling book from several years ago – “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”.  If you have the book, or see it, you will see a garden sculpture on the cover.  That sculpture is one that used to stand in Bonaventure Cemetery.  It’s now located in the actual city of Savannah, but it truly represents the magic of Bonaventure.

Our trip to Bonaventure begins with a walk down a tree lined lane, complete with the hanging moss Savannah is known for.  More park-like than cemetery.  Bonaventure Cemetery was originally known as Evergreen Cemetery, and was designed as a traditional Victorian cemetery.  In 1907, the cemetery was purchased by the City of Savannah, and its name was changed to Bonaventure.  There are far too many beautiful sculptures to show you here, so I’ll limit them to some traditional cemetery type grave markers, and then show a few of the more eclectic ones.

Of course, angels can always be found at cemeteries, and in this regard Bonaventure is no different.  However, angels here have become an art form!  They are on the top of various headstone forms, but in Bonaventure, you can also find them sitting alongside the marker.  And, if you remember from my Facebook page, some are even standing next to a sculpture of a piano!

Another typical marker in a cemetery is a cross.  The crosses in Bonaventure find themselves in a truly park like setting.  Originally, the cemetery was intentionally designed this way so that those coming to visit the graves of their loved ones could also enjoy a picnic lunch on the grounds.  Sounds a bit odd to us today, but this was back in the late 1800’s.  One interesting thing we noticed on several of the graves was a small stylized cross – you can see it at the base of the grave in the middle photo above.  This is an indication that the person buried in this grave was a veteran of the Civil War, and the marker indicates he was fought for the Confederate States of America.  This is not unusual, considering we are in the South.  Just another piece of our Nation’s history, albeit a very sad one.

Some of the most interesting grave markers are the headstones, and there were numerous pairs of them at Bonaventure.  I found the center photo in the bottom row, above, rather charming.  It appears that the wife is snuggling up to her husband.  I know it’s really the settlement of the ground, but it did take on a bit of whimsy.  The headstones on the bottom right above were of 2 brothers.  I liked the park-like setting of the one on the left, bottom row, and truly loved the ornate 3-D effect of the top one.

This is one of the most visited gravesites in Bonaventure.  It’s the grave and marker of Little Gracie, and is surrounded by a little fence.  Little Gracie is also one of Savannah’s most popular ghosts. In life, she was known as Gracie Watson, daughter of W.J. and Frances Watson. She would often play in the Pulaski Hotel (now demolished) in Johnson Square in Savannah.  Her parents managed that hotel.  Gracie died just two days before Easter in 1889.  Her parents were understandably heart-broken and hired a sculpture to create their daughter’s grave marker.  Reportedly, Little Gracie’s ghost has been seen on Johnson Square, wearing a white dress, playing where the hotel once stood.

This grave marker isn’t nearly as popular as Little Gracie’s, but I found it to be almost hauntingly beautiful and incredibly detailed.  This person must have inspired a great deal of love.

And, we found someone with a rather sarcastic sense of humor, too!  We loved the sentiment reflected here, and we kind of think it may have been inadvertent humor!  In any event, we got a chuckle!

Enjoy!

Historic Savannah

We spent a couple of days in Savannah, Georgia, and on one of those days, we took a tour of historic Savannah, via the hop-on hop-off bus there.  It gave us a chance to see this lovely city, full of parks and history.

Our first stop was the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.  It was formed in the late 18^th century when French immigrants from France and Haiti seeking refuge landed in Savannah.  It started as a church, and became a cathedral in 1850.  It’s so beautiful, it’s hard to believe that it was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1898.  It was rebuilt about 2 years later, in 1900.  However, I think much of its beauty today can be attributed to the restoration efforts that happened in 2000.

Flannery O’Connor was an author of short stories.  I’ve heard her style referred to as “Southern Gothic”.  I particularly enjoy a quote of hers when referring to her writing style  - “Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it’s going to be called realistic.”  I was very appreciative of her writing, and how different it was from anything I’d read up to that point.   She won the O. Henry award for best short story of the year three different times.  She referred to this house as the “house I was raised in”.  They did offer tours of this house – unfortunately, not while we were there (darn!).  Flannery O’Connor lived a short life, dying at age 39 in 1964, from lupus.  

One of the things I enjoyed most about Savannah was the number of parks sprinkled throughout the city there were.  I believe that I heard there are about 21 or 22 parks currently.  There were 2 more originally – however, one is now under a road and the other part of the bridge (see below) along the river, so they cannot be reclaimed by the City.  It kept the city of Savannah from feeling too overwhelmingly like a city, and reminded me of the neighborhood in Chicago where I spent my very young childhood years – a block from a huge city park, and about ½ block from a large boulevard that seemed more like a park than a median of a city street.  I noticed that one of the Savannah parks contained a cemetery of military soldiers.

When we got off the hop on, hop off bus and walked to the riverfront to stop at one of the many restaurants and pubs to grab lunch, we walked past this very cool mural painted on a cement wall.  It reflected the sentiments of some of the somewhat religious groups back during Prohibition in the US, from 1920 until 1933.  I found it particularly amusing, as, like I said, we were walking down the street towards the area where liquor was flowing freely!

The area along the riverfront was full of lovely picturesque shops, restaurants and pubs that kept the historic look and feel of the buildings there.  This was one of my favorite!

And, finally, this is the bridge I referred to above.  It will take you from Georgia to South Carolina.  One interesting tidbit about Georgia and South Carolina.  Although Georgia is known as “The Peach State”, South Carolina actually grows more peaches each year!  I didn’t read this anywhere – the tour guide on the hop on, hop off bus said it……so it must be true! 

Enjoy!