Laurel Grove Cemetery

Laurel Grove Cemetery was split in two by the building of the 37th Street Connector to I-16. Previously it was also segregated. Laurel Grove North Cemetery is located on the west side of Savannah on a portion of the former Springfield Plantation. Named after the native laurel oak trees which once inhabited the site, the cemetery was developed in 1850 as the Old Cemetery (Colonial Park Cemetery), the Old Jewish Cemetery, Potter’s Field, and the Old Negro Cemetery approached capacity. Laurel Grove North is unique in that the interment rights to all of the available cemetery lots were sold out during the Victorian Era, and, as a result, this park-like cemetery probably has the highest concentration of Victorian period cemetery architecture in the Southeast. Laurel Grove South is the most significant final resting place for African Americans who died in the 19th and 20th Centuries. While slavery was still legal, there were more free African Americans interred in Laurel Grove South than any other cemetery in the Southeast.