Alta Vista Cemetery
Why it's listed
Alta Vista Cemetery is the principal municipal burial ground for Gainesville and Hall County, Georgia. Gainesville bought 9.25 acres southwest of downtown in 1872, and the grounds later grew to about 80 acres, with roughly 35 acres in the listed district. Rolling lawns shaded by oak, magnolia and cedar hold blocks divided into family plots, many edged with brick, stone or cast-iron fences. Monuments include obelisks, zinc markers, Woodmen of the World tree stumps and two Art Deco marble mausoleums. The cemetery also received graves moved from church cemeteries and from the area flooded by Lake Lanier in the 1950s. It contains a segregated African-American section and separate potter's fields for white and Black unmarked burials, and segregation ended in the late 1950s. Burials include a Confederate general, two Georgia governors and a Black physician, Emmett E. Butler. The listing covers the period from 1872 to 1965, when adjacent Woodlawn Cemetery was added.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the cemetery is locally significant for the range of funerary monuments and mausoleums, including Art Deco examples, and for a park-like municipal cemetery plan with grids of streets and family plots. It also reflects the city's effort to provide a public cemetery and documents a segregated African-American section and potter's fields.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 12000551, listed August 28, 2012. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 521 Jones St., Gainesville |
|---|---|
| County | Hall County |
| Listed | August 28, 2012 |
| Reference number | 12000551 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1872-1965 |
| Architectural style | N/A (Art Deco, Gothic Revival and High Victorian Gothic cited in markers and mausoleums) |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Art, Community Planning and Development, Social History, Black, Landscape Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still in use as a cemetery; no burial sites remain available for sale and it holds about 14,000 marked and unmarked burials. |
| Acreage | 35 |
| Coordinates | 34.29638, -83.83712 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 12000551.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikidata Q113471152
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.