{"nrhp_refnum":"04000957","name":"Sunset Hill Cemetery","other_names":["City Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"110 N. Oak St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Valdosta","county":"Lowndes County","state":"GA","lat":30.84231998650006,"lon":-83.29128681869952,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-09-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Art","Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A city-owned historic cemetery of about 66 acres on the northwest side of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, begun in 1861 on 30 acres donated by C. O. Force. It holds over 25,000 burials and remains active.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the largest historic cemetery and landscaped place in Valdosta and Lowndes County, with the area's largest collection of historic sculpture. It is significant for its mausoleums, funerary art such as the Charles Strickland statue, its role as a publicly provided city cemetery, and its park-like landscape plan of 1915.","narrative":"Sunset Hill Cemetery is Valdosta's oldest publicly owned burial ground, founded in 1861 when C. O. Force donated about thirty acres to the city. Expansions in 1882, 1892, 1918-1920, 1932 and 1956 brought it to roughly 66 acres, with more than 25,000 burials. Its winding paths, granite entrance gates of 1913 and a 1915 city engineer's plan gave the older eastern sections a park-like character, with live oaks, cedars and azaleas. Thirty granite and marble mausoleums, mostly Classical Revival, mark prominent local families. Notable artwork includes the Lane family obelisk, marble statues, prefabricated metal markers and a rare Italian-carved statue of Charles Strickland in his own likeness. The grounds also contain a Jewish section begun in the 1930s, a Greek Orthodox area, and an African-American section once separated by a fence, with a 1995 memorial to enslaved people buried in unmarked graves. The cemetery was recognized for its civic role, funerary art and landscape design.","period_of_significance":"1861-1954","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Classical Revival (most mausoleums); Victorian Gothic and Egyptian Revival elements; architectural classification listed as N/A","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Open and active cemetery owned, managed and operated by the city of Valdosta.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.59153-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/04000957.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000957/8bb85f7740-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000957/8bb85f7740-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Bubba73","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_Hill_Cemetery,_Valdosta,_GA,_US_(10).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bubba73</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_Hill_Cemetery,_Valdosta,_GA,_US_(10).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208845","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Hill_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7641290"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/lowndes-county/sunset-hill-cemetery-04000957/"}