From Oakland’s earliest decades, families have desired to enclose their loved ones’ last resting place as their financial means would allow. For some that meant wood, for others granite and iron were within reach. For less affluent families a row…
So often we receive calls from visitors and volunteers who want an ID for the “flowering tree” located outside the Bell Tower, as well as many other curious blooms found throughout our grounds. Besides daffodils, here's a brief rundown of…
Henry Patillo Farrow was born in Laurens, S.C., on Jan. 24, 1834 to lawyer Pattillo Farrow and Jane Strother James. He received his early education in Laurens and went to college at the University of Virginia, where he fought with…
This month the Love Stories of Oakland program returns to share stories of love – romantic, platonic, temporary, and eternal – found at Oakland Cemetery. A cemetery may seem like a strange place to learn about love, but of the…
After many months of hard work, the Preservation, Restoration, and Operations (PRO) Team has completed Phase 1 of hardscape restoration in the African American Grounds. Phase 1 encompasses the southernmost portion of the section, roughly one acre of land. The…
As part of the Historic Oakland Foundation Master Plan historical research, historic landscape images of the cemetery were compiled. In the Foundation’s reference materials is a photocopy of an mid-1870's stereoview of a cemetery purported to be Oakland. The image…
In January the Preservation, Restoration, and Operations (PRO) Team completed the first wave of 2018’s critical restoration. Critical restoration’s goal is to identify fragile, dangerous, or visually intrusive monuments and walls and mitigate the problem before they cause harm or…
Oakland Cemetery relies on the incredible energy, dedication, and generosity of over two hundred volunteers. Working in the gardens, giving tours, staffing the Visitor Center, or giving countless hours at special and private events, Oakland volunteers never fail to amaze…
One of the past year’s landscape restoration projects at Oakland has been the southern portion of the African American Grounds. As with all restoration projects, garden history research on the area and its families was conducted to guide the design.…
Very old photographs of familiar places are most intriguing to many people, particularly those with an interest in history. Oakland Cemetery is no exception; old photographs illustrate how Oakland grew, how it changed with decades of improvements, and in some…
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