Colonial Park Cemetery

200 Abercorn St.
Historic District
Daily 8am-5pm November-March
Daily 8am-8pm March-November
Admission free
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Colonial Park Cemetery was created in 1750 as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish and in 1789 it became the primary cemetery for all denominations.  It was expanded several times over the years and over 9,000 people are buried here, including 700 in a mass grave created for victims of a yellow fever outbreak in 1820. 

Several of the graves here are for people who got caught up in what is known as the “Dueling Era” in Savannah.  From about 1740 to 1877, dueling was a thing for people trying to work out issues of “honor.”  To make things more efficient, many of those duels happened in the cemetery.  

The cemetery was closed to internments in 1853.

A decade later, during the Civil War, Union soldiers camped here – some of them stayed inside the vaults to stay warm.  It is said that they vandalized, broke, or removed many of the gravestones and so a lot of the names of people buried here have been lost to time.

It became a public park in 1896.

Interstingly, it is believed that the current footprint of the cemetery is actually smaller than it had been at its largest point, meaning the many of the roads and buildings around the park are probably built on graves.