Why thousands of people drive to a Savannah cemetery and leave feeling strangely good

It’s part garden, part gallery, part ghost story

Five miles southeast of downtown Savannah, a bluff drops down to the Wilmington River, and on that bluff sits one of the most visited cemeteries in the country.

Bonaventure covers more than 100 acres, and the live oaks here are so old and so wide that their branches form a ceiling over the paths below.

It’s been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001, and once you walk in, you’ll understand why people keep coming back.

The land has been here since before the Revolution

The story starts in the early 1760s, when Colonel John Mullryne settled the land as a plantation. He named it Bonaventure, which means “good fortune,” and planted the live oaks that still line the roads today.

In 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III sold 600 acres to Peter Wiltberger, who saw the potential for a cemetery.

After the Civil War, Wiltberger’s son formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company and began developing the grounds. The City of Savannah bought it on July 7, 1907, and the name Bonaventure stuck.

A six-year-old girl draws more visitors than anyone

The most visited grave in Bonaventure belongs to a child. Gracie Watson died of pneumonia in April 1889 at age six.

Her father managed the Pulaski House, one of Savannah’s top hotels, and little Gracie had charmed everyone who stayed there.

After she died, her father hired sculptor John Walz to carve a life-sized marble statue of her from a single photograph. Walz finished it in 1890.

Visitors still leave toys and flowers at her feet, and a wrought iron fence now protects the monument from the constant stream of people who come to see her.

“Moon River” was written by a man buried in Section H

Johnny Mercer grew up in Savannah, and he came home to rest in Bonaventure.

During his career, he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,500 songs, won four Academy Awards for songwriting, and co-founded Capitol Records in 1942. One of those Oscars came for “Moon River.”

His grave sits in Section H, and people leave flowers and coins on the headstone. If you know the song, standing there carries a certain weight that’s hard to explain.

A poet’s bench holds words worth reading twice

Conrad Aiken was born in Savannah in 1889, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1930, and spent much of his life in New England and England before returning home for his final years.

His monument is a bench, and the words carved into it are “Cosmos Mariner, Destination Unknown.” He was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2003.

You can sit on the bench if you want. Most people just stop and read the inscription a couple of times before moving on.

A signer of the Articles of Confederation rests here

Edward Telfair came to America from Scotland in 1758, settled in Savannah, and built a life as a merchant.

He served in the Continental Congress, signed the Articles of Confederation, and became the first governor of Georgia under the state’s 1789 constitution, serving three terms in that era.

His daughter Mary Telfair later helped establish what became the Telfair Museums, still operating today as the oldest public art museum in the American South.

You’ll find the family buried in Bonaventure, generations of Georgia history under the oaks.

One photograph turned this cemetery into a landmark

In 1936, sculptor Sylvia Shaw Judson cast a bronze figure of a young girl holding shallow bowls at her sides. The statue stood quietly on the Trosdal family plot for decades.

Then, in 1993, photographer Jack Leigh used it for the cover of John Berendt’s book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” The book came out in 1994 and sold millions of copies.

Visitors flooded in looking for the statue. The foot traffic got so heavy that the Trosdal family moved it out of the cemetery for protection.

The Bird Girl now stands at the Telfair Academy in downtown Savannah. Jack Leigh, the man who photographed it, died in 2004 and is buried here.

John Muir slept on the graves for six nights

In October 1867, John Muir was in the middle of walking from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico.

He stopped in Savannah and camped in Bonaventure for six days and nights, sleeping among the graves while he waited for money to arrive by mail.

He found the place so compelling that he wrote a full chapter about it, called “Camping Among the Tombs.” The account appeared in the 1916 book “A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf,” published after his death.

Muir went on to become the most important voice for conservation in American history and a driving force behind the national park system.

The stonework here took decades and dozens of hands

The art carved into Bonaventure spans the late 1800s and early 1900s, and it covers a wide range. German-born sculptor John Walz alone created at least 77 monuments here between 1880 and 1922.

Italian artist Benedetto Civiletti carved the Corinne Elliott Lawton monument in 1879, one of the most admired works in the cemetery.

As you walk the paths, you’ll pass angels, draped urns, obelisks, Celtic crosses, and small sleeping children cut in stone. Near the entrance, the Gaston Tomb stops most visitors cold before they’ve gone 100 feet.

One section carries the weight of the Holocaust

The Mickve Israel congregation purchased the Jewish Section of Bonaventure in 1909.

The entrance has Stars of David set into the gateposts, and a brick and glass chapel built in 1917 still stands inside, the only mortuary chapel in any of Savannah’s cemeteries.

In 1950, a Holocaust memorial was installed to mark the resting place of ashes brought from a camp near Hanover, Germany, representing 344 victims.

Sections of the cemetery also honor veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

Walking here is easier than you might expect

Bonaventure is open every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free.

Maps and brochures are available at the administrative building near the main entrance, and you can drive through on the unpaved roads if walking the whole thing feels like too much.

The Bonaventure Historical Society runs free guided tours on the second weekend of each month.

The ground is sandy and uneven in places, with tree roots cutting across the paths, so wear shoes with some grip, especially if you’re going in summer.

People have been drawn here for more than 150 years

Up to 450,000 people visit Bonaventure each year, and it’s still an active cemetery where Savannah residents can buy plots.

That combination is part of what makes it different from a historic site that’s been roped off and preserved.

The graves here belong to poets, songwriters, governors, soldiers, a six-year-old girl, and the man who photographed a bronze statue and accidentally changed how the world saw Savannah. Walk it slowly.

There’s more ground here than you’ll cover in a single visit, and every section pulls you somewhere new.

Visit Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia

Bonaventure Cemetery sits at 330 Bonaventure Road, about five miles southeast of downtown Savannah. It’s open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free.

Pick up a map at the administrative building near the entrance before you head in. The Bonaventure Historical Society also runs a mobile tour app if you want more detail as you walk.

Wear comfortable shoes with grip, bring water, and pack bug spray if you’re going between April and October. The roots and sandy paths will slow you down, but that’s not a bad thing.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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