In 1916, the iron gates at Hillcrest Cemetery opened for the first time, a new cemetery on Wheaton Street adjacent to Catholic Cemetery. Hillcrest presented itself to the public as a modern cemetery. The decorative iron fences, metal wreaths, and canopies typically found at gravesites of older Victorian-style cemeteries fell out of fashion and simpler monuments became the norm. Landscaping transformed the cemetery into a green space with wide expanses of lawn, broadly spaced trees, and flowerbeds. Even individual gravesites were maintained by the groundskeepers at Hillcrest through the policy of “perpetual care.” Families that had traditionally cleaned and cared for the graves of their loved ones received that service at no charge at Hillcrest. Uniformly manicured lots maintained by the management company created an ambience of order and harmony.
Services at the cemetery were expanded with the construction of a mausoleum in the early 1950s. Building the new facility gave the management at Hillcrest not only the opportunity to meet the needs of their clientele but also to show their sensitivity to issues of historical preservation. Ruins of Confederate breastworks associated with Fort Brown were located on the proposed site of the mausoleum. Without putting the relics at risk, the mausoleum was set back a respectful distance overlooking the ruins.
As the cemetery approaches the century mark, it continues to grow with the times. Land adjacent to Truman Parkway was incorporated into the memorial park in the mid-1990s. To meet the demand for more crypts in the mausoleum, Trinity Mausoleum opened in 2010.
Advertisement for Hillcrest Cemetery, 1917 Telephone Directory
1917 Savannah Telephone Directory, Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Collection of Ginger and Adam Wilkins.
An early advertisement for the new Hillcrest Cemetery focuses on its policy of “perpetual care,” that shifted the responsibility for gravesite maintenance from the family to the groundskeepers. This progressive policy for cemetery maintenance anticipated by fifty years the perpetual care mandated by law.
Grave of A.C. Oelschig, Hillcrest, 1916
Courtesy of George Oelschig.
Savannah florist A.C. Oelschig, one of the first to buy lots at Hillcrest when it opened in 1916, chose a beautiful site on a gentle slope at the cemetery. Unfortunately he needed the gravesite all too soon. He was buried in October 1916 and h is grave was covered with flowers from his own greenhouses.
Early Hillcrest Flowerbed
Courtesy of Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum.
Beautifully designed flowerbeds, such as this early example, shows how meticulous landscaping became a hallmark for Hillcrest.
Lichgate at Hillcrest Memorial Park
Courtesy of Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum.
The lichgate inside the park has also been a familiar fixture at Hillcrest since the cemetery first opened. Traditionally, a lichgate stands near the entry of a churchyard, a small roofed building where a casket may rest before a funeral. Mourners were known to tie up their horses at Hillcrest’s small wood lichgate in years past; today the lichgate, renovated in 1996, functions more like a gazebo where visitors can sit.
Esplanade, Hillcrest Memorial Park
Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
Courtesy of the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs.
The beautiful esplanade lined with palmettos has made the entrance to Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum a signature feature of Wheaton Street for more than fifty years.
Monuments at Hillcrest
Photograph by Geoff L. Johnson.
Courtesy of the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs.
Late afternoon shadows stretch under the boughs of an old live oak at Hillcrest Memorial Park and Mausoleum.
