{"nrhp_refnum":"97000459","name":"Decatur Cemetery","other_names":["Old Decatur Cemetery","Decatur City Cemetery"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"229 Bell St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Decatur","county":"DeKalb County","state":"GA","lat":33.78253519350005,"lon":-84.29204433173084,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-05-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Community Planning and Development","Black","Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Decatur Cemetery is a 58-acre public municipal cemetery northeast of the town center of Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia, in use for burials since the 1820s and the oldest known publicly owned burial ground in metro Atlanta.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the cemetery is significant for its well-preserved 19th-century funerary art and sculpture, including iron fencing and early 20th-century Art Moderne and Art Deco stones. It also reflects community planning in a growing county seat and the 1881 rural cemetery movement landscape plan. A distinct African-American section with cast concrete markers adds to its ethnic heritage value.","narrative":"Decatur Cemetery is a 58-acre municipal burial ground on the highest ground northeast of downtown Decatur, Georgia. Burials began by 1826, and the city took responsibility for it in 1832. The oldest section, about 7.5 acres, holds hand-carved pioneer stones, Victorian obelisks, draped urns and ornate iron-fenced lots. A southern portion includes an African-American section with distinctive cast concrete markers, a pauper burial area and graves of orphanage children. In 1881 the city carried out a landscape plan in the spirit of the rural cemetery movement, adding curving roads, granite walks, stairs, terraces, a wrought-iron fence with fieldstone piers and a lattice-detailed wooden well house, now used as a gazebo. Later additions were laid out by civil engineers and landscape architects, including William Pauley. The cemetery was listed for its funerary art, landscape design, community planning role and ethnic heritage. It remains an active cemetery and a public green space used by residents and office workers.","period_of_significance":"1826 - 1947","architect_builder":"Landscape architects and civil engineers associated with the site include Robert Scott (1881), W. H. Weaver, C. R. Roberts, William C. Pauley, R. A. Clack, H. D. Rice, Edward L. Daugherty, and Patterson & Dewar.","architectural_style":"No style (cemetery)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a public cemetery and green space; the 1881 features have been preserved and maintained.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.172705-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/97000459.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000459/89ec3d7eec-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000459/89ec3d7eec-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"strixxvaria","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Decatur_Cemetery_04.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">strixxvaria</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:Decatur_Cemetery_04.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207758","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decatur_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5248766"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/dekalb-county/decatur-cemetery-97000459/"}