My last post was written about a cemetery visit from February 2020. I am sure that date resonates with everyone. It’s right before the Covid-19 virus changed the world.
It also changed cemetery hopping a bit. Some folks actually sought out cemeteries to walk around because social distancing was so easy and well, let’s state the obvious. Most of the “residents” were deceased and could cause no physical harm.
In those initial months, I began visiting some of Atlanta’s larger cemeteries again like Westview, Greenwood, and Crest Lawn. Why not Oakland? It’s closer to downtown and I just didn’t have it in me to go. Which is why I’m going to share Crest Lawn Cemetery/Casey’s Hill with you. It’s not one that gets a lot of attention.
Crest Lawn Cemetery
Crest Lawn Cemetery is a bit of an odd duck, frankly.
The main part officially opened in 1916 and covers close to 145 acres. There aren’t a lot of old classic monuments like the ones at the other cemeteries that opened earlier. There are an estimated 29,000 burials for it noted on Find a Grave. I’m sure there are more. It also has a large mausoleum but I don’t know how many folks are in there.
Crest Lawn has had several different names over the years. Death certificates have it listed as Casey’s Cemetery, Crest Lawn Cemetery, Highland Cemetery, North View Cemetery, Riverview Cemetery, and Crown Hill Cemetery.
Casey’s Hill, located on the back side of Crest Lawn, is not “officially” part of the cemetery because they don’t do any maintenance or burials back there any longer. John Austin Casey owned much of the property in this area from 1820 to 1907, so many of the markers are older than the ones in Crest Lawn. But I’ll get to that in the next post.
My first visit to Crest Lawn (according to my photo archives) was in February 2013. I was doing a Find a Grave request and wandered around a bit. Two of the pictures I took that day were of this prominently placed statue. I don’t know when it was placed. I have since learned there are a number of cemeteries that have the same statue.
If you are looking for good views of the city of Atlanta, Crest Lawn has some good ones.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about Crest Lawn’s mausoleum. It’s never been open when I’ve been there, and I’ve read that you can only get in if you own a space inside and have a key. Some cemeteries are just like that. Security is tighter and perhaps there’s a good reason for it. (By comparison, Westview Cemetery’s large Abbey Mausoleum is almost always open.) But here’s what the outside looks like.
This Good Shepherd-themed monument caught my eye. I think it’s from the 1950s but I can’t be sure. It could use a little TLC.
A Deadly Fire
As I said, there aren’t many classic monuments at Crest Lawn but there’s one with a heartbreaking story behind it.
On Saturday, Oct. 16, 1915, a fire broke out in the Mion Building at 40 and 42 Luckie Street. This was the Atlanta location of the Mutual Film Company. No movies (all silent at that time) were filmed there, but many copies were stored there and distributed to theaters across the country, along with movie posters/ads. That area of the city was quite busy then and is now.
As fire trucks rushed to the scene and onlookers tried to get a better look, two young ladies fought to survive.
One of them was Charlotte “Lottie” Lee Ham, a 16-year-old stenographer who attended Atlanta’s Central High School. She was working alongside another young woman, Clara Westbrook. The fire trapped them in a back room and there were no fire escapes to climb down.
Lottie was one of the five children of Dean Ham and Martha Sadler Ham. Dean worked as a knitter at a cotton mill. Lottie was liked by her classmates and she taught Sunday School at North Atlanta Baptist Church. Lottie earned $14 a week at Mutual.
According to newspaper reports, Lottie’s friend Sam Berry fought his way through the crowd and was halfway up the ladder before firemen pushed him down. He would later say, “She was one of the best friends I had on earth and I would have gladly died to save her.”
It was determine that the fire started on the ground floor when scraps of film on a cutting table were ignited by sparks produced by an electric fan. Later, the Hams sued the Mutual Film Company. This article from the Feb. 27, 1916 gives the details. I don’t know if anything ever came of it.
Her coworker, Clara Westbrook, was 29. She was carried out of the burning building alive but died soon after from smoke inhalation. She is buried at Union Hill Methodist Church Cemetery in Canton, Ga. She left behind several siblings.
This is the monument for Lottie at Crest Lawn. While the young women are buried in two different cemeteries, I have to wonder if the two figures represent both Lottie and Clara. Both were cut down in their prime.
Atlanta Artist
You can find a number of Jewish graves at Crest Lawn. Some are grouped by congregation (like the Shearith Israel graves) but others are not.
One that I found in the Mount Carmel section got my attention. The marker for Judith Alexander is not what you might expect. Several tidbits of information about her are written on the slab, such as her birth/death dates. It’s also an abbreviated obituary of sorts.
But it’s the block with a hole lined full of little “faces” that is what grabbed me. I’m not sure if it’s a hole meant for people to place flowers in. However, it’s certainly unusual and I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.
Born in 1931, Judith studied art, first at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, then with the painter Hans Hofman in New York City. Judith advocated for art and artists, opening the New Arts Gallery on North Peachtree Road in Atlanta.
As a showcase and platform for such world-renowned artists as Franz Kline, Jackson Pollack, and Jim Dine, Alexander’s gallery grew into a center for Atlanta’s young arts community. In 1978, she became a pioneer in the promotion of self-taught artists when she opened the Alexander Gallery on East Paces Ferry Road. Among those she brought to the world’s attention were Nellie Mae Rowe, Ned Cartledge, Carlton Garrett, and Linda Anderson—Georgians all.
Though she lived most of the year in New York City from 1989 through 2004 (she moved to be near her sister), Judith remained a revered presence in the Atlanta family of artists, art lovers, and art dealers. She died suddenly at age 73 on Dec. 15, 2004.
According to artist Mario Petriena, “Judith had a way of building you up, One time, after some disappointment, she said to me ‘People can be curators or dealers or critics, but never forget that you have the biggest gift of all—the ability to make art.’ She was always there. I can’t count the number of artists she helped.”
Kohanim Hands
This marker for Simon Kagan is etched with the Jewish symbol of the Kohanim hands. I did not know about these until I began visiting Jewish cemeteries. Do they remind you of something?
The image of two hands with thumbs touching fingers paired and split is known as the Kohanim hands. Kohanim are members of the Jewish priest tribe descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. The Kohanim raise their hands in this gesture over their heads to bless the congregation. It is believed that the radiance of God (Shekhinah) will stream through their fingers.
This may call to mind the greeting from the Vulcans in Star Trek. The late Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, was Jewish and took inspiration from his heritage to create the famous gesture.
Shearith Israel Section
The Shearith Isreal section of Crest Lawn features a number of more modern Jewish graves, many of which have been laser etched on dark stones.
I know very little about Abram and Sarah Borukhov but I was taken with the complexity of their markers and how very life-like their images appear on them. I only know that Abram emigrated to America from Uzbekistan.
Atlanta Rhythm Section Drummer
This is not the first time I’ve photographed a grave of someone that I later discovered was a notable person. But I admit I did not know who R.J. Vealey was when I saw his marker.
Born in 1962, Robert Jason “R.J.” Vealey was a much respected studio musician who recorded with artists including Section Eight, Zaccaria, Tone Poets, Stonefish, and was the drummer of Roy Orbison’s backing band. In 1995, he became the drummer for the Southern rock band “The Atlanta Rhythm Section”. On November 13, 1999, after the band had finished a set at a concert in Orlando, Fla., he complained of indigestion and then collapsed.Vealey was only 37 when he died.
Vealey is also a member of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
There’s more of Crest Lawn Cemetery to discover. Next time, I’ll take you into the woods where the Casey’s Hill section is located.
Thank you very much for this post. My Maternal Grandmother and Grandfather are buried at Crest Lawn along with my youngest sister and many aunts and uncles. My parents have plots there but it has become too dangerous to visit the cemetery so when they died we buried them in Douglasville, GA.
I visited the cemetery often in the 1960s and even took a date to the mausoleum where we sat in one of the visitation rooms. It used to be open and only locked after dark. My last visit there, about 5 years ago, found the doors locked up tight.
There are sections with much older graves that are not kept up well at all. It is unfortunate that the area around the site has gone downhill so much. As I said, it is really not safe to wander around there, especially when it gets close to evening time.
Again, thank you very much for your post. I enjoyed it very much and harkens me back to the post of the two cemeteries on Hollywood Road in Atlanta that you visited quite a few years ago (Hollywood Cemetery and Magnolia Cemetery, across the road from Hollywood.)
Thanks for what you do and keep wandering and reporting on these wonderful places.
Hi, Cliff! Yes, Crest Lawn is (as I said) an odd duck to be sure. I have never gone in the office to ask to be let into the mausoleum because I’m not confident that they’d let me in. My next post will be about Casey’s Hill. The people who live in the condos down below it evidently cleaned it up enough to walk through it, plus they put picnic tables in one area (not among the graves). But as you point out, it’s not the safest area of town so I still don’t go over there often.
From what I understand, there is a couple who actually bought Hollywood Cemetery and are trying to clean it up. It was in the AJC earlier this year. God bless them for taking this on, I don’t know if that’s even possible now. I need to go out there to see what they’ve done.
Thanks for your note. The Mausoleum used to be open, that was in the early 90s, when I took a date to one of the visitation room. Ever since the movie Phantasm, that is all I think about when I think of that huge building with the long, cold, silent halls.
As I’ve posted before, I played with my childhood friend in Hollywood and Magnolia Cemeteries. There is also (or was) a large pet cemetery beside Magnolia and there were many animal statues that we played on. I have quite a few relatives buried in both Hollywood and Magnolia but I am not sure I could still find their graves. Somewhere on my “find a grave” printouts I have pictures of a couple of them. I believe the last family burial was in the 1940s.
I really enjoy your post and adventures. We have a very small family cemetery here in Douglasville, GA. It is designated the McLarty Family Cemetery, but the patriarch of the Brown Family (My Grandfather was a Brown and mom’s maiden name was Brown) is buried there. When I was younger and more of the Brown family was alive I would help cut back the grass and weeds and vines. At 75 I can’t do that much anymore and the last time I visited it was in pretty bad shape. There is the main cemetery with probably 45 or 50 graves (including Civil War dead) and next to it is a slave/black cemetery with no markers other than large stone for headstones.
Cemeteries are fascinating and hold so much history. Thank you for keeping them alive.
Although I was born and raised in Atlanta, with relatives buried in several area cemeteries, including Westview, I had never visited Crest Lawn until 2013 to find the grave of a dear neighbor who had passed the year before. She was like a second Mom to us kids growing up in our old southside neighborhood. I stopped at the office and a lady there was able to give me the general area of her grave….Section A, Joe Johnston Hill. (Named for the general?) I quickly found the grave.
When I had paid my respects, I decided to take a drive around the large cemetery. As the roadway began to rise in elevation, I entered a fairly heavily wooded area. When I glanced into the woods, I was shocked…there were graves in there! Some grown over with brush and weeds …signs of severe neglect everywhere. Could I still be in Crest Lawn? (Maybe I’ll find out on the next ‘Adventures installment} I kept driving and soon came to the Shearith Isreal section. Many of the tombstones were festooned with stones left by visitors, as is the custom. The laser etchings are really something, aren’t they? I did not expect to see the resting place of Atlanta Rhythm Section’s drummer, R.J. Vealy. I go pretty far back on the Atlanta area music scene….Gladys Knight Ray Stevens, Brenda Lee, Black Crowes…ets. I have to smile when an A.R.S tune comes from my old truck speakers tuned to an oldies station ..Doraville !
And one last comment about my old neighbor’s Crest Lawn grave site. Next to it is the tombstone of a relative of hers. (Who I never knew.) But I think I know where he had been employed…because stretching all the way across his memorial is an etching of a giant C5 -A cargo plane, made at nearby Lockeed Corp in Marietta Ga.
Thank you, Traci.