Landscape Information
Today measuring a total of approximately 90 acres, this burial ground was established by the city of Savannah in 1852 on gently undulating land, formerly part of the Springfield Plantation. Designed by engineer James O. Morse and realized by landscape gardener William George, the cemetery was designed for white, Jewish, and African American burials, with four acres in the southwest portion designated for the latter.
Laurel Grove filled rapidly, necessitating three extensions between the 1850s and 1880s. In 1964 the state highway department purchased, for one dollar, six acres of the cemetery for the construction of a connecter between West 37th Street and I-16. Bisecting the cemetery directly through the African American section, this connector split the cemetery in two, severing the historic continuity of the original planning and design intent, and resulted in Laurel Grove North for whites and Laurel Grove South for African Americans.
Laurel Grove North is entered through an arched iron gate and contains four outbuildings, including two Italianate structures designed by architects Sholl and Fay (1850s). Its roughly 55 acres are traversed by winding asphalt and unpaved roads; grassy aisles run between uniform rows of individual and family plots with primarily eastward-facing, ornamental grave markers. This arrangement is disrupted by a ravine (a former pond) at its center containing dense deciduous canopy trees.
Located a half-mile south and entered via a brick and iron gate on Kollock Street, Laurel Grove South is approximately 35 acres. Its grounds are defined by linear asphalt and unpaved roads that frame irregularly shaped sections of individual and family plots, most of which have more modest, eastward-facing grave markers.
The western edge of both cemeteries is lined by deciduous shade trees. The grounds are amply filled with groups of moss-draped live oaks, palms, cypress, and crape myrtles. Flowering shrubs include azaleas, camelia, and other varieties.
Both cemeteries are listed in the National Register of Historic Places: Laurel Grove South was added in 1978 and Laurel Grove North in 1983.
