Westview Cemetery

08/29/2025

To our families and visitors (particularly those scheduling funeral services):

We are experiencing intermittent outages as our Internet and phone provider is doing upgrades in our neighborhood to the system.

If you are trying to schedule a service, please keep calling us until you get a live person. If you are a funeral director with access to one of our staff's cell phones, please contact them directly until our issues are resolved.

We apologize for any inconveniences.

08/29/2025

Labor Day Hours

To our families and visitors, please be advised Westview's offices will be closed Monday, September 2, in observance of Labor Day.

The cemetery grounds will be open during their normal time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

The abbey, however, will be CLOSED.

All operations resume during normally scheduled hours on Tuesday.

08/20/2025

Need something to do this Sunday? Why not join us for a tour of Westview's historic grounds. Sign up today!

Come learn about the lives of many important Atlantans while enjoying beautiful sculptures and historic structures

08/15/2025

Major announcement; five months of work culminate in a restoration first for Friends of Historic Westview Cemetery!

08/11/2025

All,

SAVE THE DATE for what will surely be an incredible event!

Many of the players involved with the legendary Leo Frank trial are buried at Westview - the owners of the National Pencil Factory, a governor, a sister-in-law, counsel for the defense, and more.

Below are some early reviews of the book:

John Pruitt, retired WSB-TV news anchor and author of TELL IT TRUE

"I AM A GEORGIA GIRL is the story Ann Hite has yearned to tell since she was nine years old. That's when her grandmother shared with her the horrific experience of seeing Leo Frank's body hanging from a tree limb, the victim of a lynch mob avenging the murder of Mary Phagan. Hite delves into this sad chapter of Georgia history by focusing on Frank's wife, Lucille. It's a remarkable portrait of a quiet but strong young woman courageously defending her beloved husband against insurmountable forces that ultimately ripped him from her forever. The roles of Lucille Frank and other women swept up in the Leo Frank saga have often been underreported. Thanks to Ann Hite for so vividly bringing their stories to life against the backdrop of one of Georgia's most infamous episodes."

Jeff Clemmons, author of RICH'S: A SOUTHERN INSTITUTION (and ATLANTA'S HISTORIC WESTVIEW CEMETERY)

"Many of us know the story of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan--the murder, tabloid trial, 'guilty' verdict, and lynching, which led to a rise in antisemitism, a rebirth of the Klan, and the birth of the Anti-Defamation League. But the story we don't know is that of Leo's wife, Lucille. Now, for the first time, Ann Hite's I AM A GEORGIA GIRL gives Lucille a voice, and it's a poignant one rendering a heart-breaking story. No longer bound by society and forced to bear silent witness to the events that surrounded her husband, Lucille (and Ann) gives an indictment on race, class, religion, gender, and history that must not be ignored. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself."

Carolyn Newton Curry, award-winning author of TRUDY'S AWAKENING

"In this new biography, I AM A GEORGIA GIRL, Ann Hite reexamines the horrific lynching of Leo Frank which occurred in Georgia on August 17, 1915. He was accused of murdering the thirteen-year-old factory worker, Mary Phagan. With extensive research and meticulous writing, Hite looks at the hatred, antisemitism, and mob violence of vigilantism which was rampant at the time. But she concentrates on the life of the young wife of Leo Frank, Lucille, who spent the rest of her life trying to prove his innocence. Her life was shattered, too. This is an important book for which Hite should be commended."

Robert Gwaltney, award-winning author of THE CICADA TREE

"I AM A GEORGIA GIRL Ann Hite's nonfiction feat, gleams with precision, humanity, and expert storytelling. This tautly rendered, compelling account of the courageous life of Lucille Selig Frank and events surrounding the 1915 lynching of her husband, Leo Max Frank, weaves the timely and momentous story of gross injustice, antisemitism, and the suppression of women's voices. Lucille Selig Frank would be proud."

McCracken Poston Jr., author of ZENITH MAN

"The late University of Georgia law professor Donald Eugene Wilkes, Jr., introduced generations of his students to the horrifying story of injustice that Ann Hite so well recounts here, with excellent research and narrative, in her book I AM A GEORGIA GIRL. I was shocked to be reminded how relatively recently this happened, Lucille Frank being the age of my grandparents. I have friends who are descendants from families on both sides of this horror story, and a statue of one of the most culpable in causing this horrific injustice still stands on the Georgia State Capitol grounds. We must keep this story, raw and painful to read today, ever-present in our minds, as Professor Wilkes was intending. The words of George Santayana, who said 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,' underline the importance of reading this book."

Send a message to learn more

07/22/2025

Save the Date!

We are excited to announce an upcoming event in conjunction with the Atlanta History Center!

Register today: https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/event/party-with-the-past-westview-cemetery/

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07/17/2025

Westview Cemetery Is Private Property: Do You Know These People?

Family, this post is a little different than our normal ones, but we felt the need to address the below.

Westview Cemetery is private property (a private cemetery). We are not a city park, like our more famous cousin, Oakland. We receive zero tax dollars and are a non-profit. When our gates are closed for the evening, no one is allowed inside the property. And at no time is anyone permitted to walk through our back acreage - near the lake, near our maintenance sheds, and so forth.

If you are caught trespassing, we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. We are a cemetery and exist to serve the needs of families looking for a forever home for their loved ones or for families who have found that forever home.

This past weekend (Sunday, approx. 2:45), our security cameras captured these individuals walking through our back acreage, near and through our old service building, and near section 19. Additionally, it appears these individuals cut a hole through one of our fences, left a trail marked by toilet paper, and spray-painted arrows on our roads, which, we assume, is to help other's find their way to something.

If you recognize or know any of these individuals, please let us know immediately. The cops will be notified and actions taken against them. Again, trespassing is ILLEGAL.

For our families and surrounding neighbors, please be vigilant and report any unseemly activity to us right away. Your safety and the protection of our grounds is paramount to us.

To those of you who may be reading this and see yourselves in the pictures attached, you have been warned. This is your cease-and-desist letter. Stop breaking the law.

Again, Westview is a cemetery, a repository of history and art, but not an amusement park for urban explorers. Bicycles, guided tours (without permission), Civil War relic hunting, game hunting, scavenging, or a simple walk in the woods is not allowed.

And to the person or persons marking trees with paint to find your loved ones, stop. We will prosecute for that as well. Desecration of a grave (graves) is a serious offense with steep incarceration periods.

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07/08/2025

A Graveyard Twice: The Battle of Ezra Church

Did you know that Westview Cemetery partially sits on top of an old Civil War battlefield?

One-hundred and sixty-one years ago this month, the Battle of Ezra Church (July 28, 1864) raged on the northern end of Westview's property. The battle was named after a small Methodist church that existed north of Lick Skillet Road, now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in what today is the southeast corner of Mozley Park just northeast of Westview Cemetery.

Union major general William T. Sherman and his armies had entered into Georgia two months prior to the Battle of Ezra Church and had steadily advanced toward Atlanta with the hopes of cutting its rail supply and capturing the city. The Confederacy under General Joseph E. Johnston had continually failed to stop Sherman’s advancements in a series of battles between Chattanooga and Atlanta throughout May and June; therefore, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, in a controversial move, replaced Johnston with General John Bell Hood, who was deemed more aggressive and who might change the tide of events.

On July 20, Hood launched his first offensive maneuver toward Sherman’s advancing army in a sudden assault at Peachtree Creek just north of Atlanta; yet his troops were repulsed. Two days later, on July 22, Hood - in what became known as the Battle of Atlanta - launched a second sudden attack against Sherman’s armies but was once again thwarted. Sherman, slowed but undeterred, sent troops west and south of Atlanta over the following days to try to sever the last rail lines coming into the city from Macon.

Sometime between mid-morning and noon on July 28, the Union soldiers who were sent southwest encountered Confederate troops at Ezra Church. The Confederates had been assembling in the area to stop anticipated Union movement southward and to carry out flank attacks. One of the Confederate’s corps commanders who showed up to the area late that morning decided, however, to attack immediately instead of simply block Union advancement.

Over the course of several hours, Confederate troops were progressively repulsed back from the church and ridge line, which now lies beneath Interstate 20, to Lick Skillet Road (MLK Jr. Dr.). South of the road in what is now the northern part of Westview Cemetery is where Confederate cavalry and infantry rallied and fought until eventually being pushed back from there. When the fighting was done - and estimates vary - 3,000 Confederate and 632 Union soldiers were killed, wounded or missing out of a combined 20,000-plus group of fighting men from both sides.

By the following day of July 29, Confederate forces had left the area and retreated farther south to join other soldiers in other skirmishes. The wounded were taken to nearby hospital units, and prisoners were rounded up and interrogated. The dead were buried in mass graves on site.*

Union troops, on the other hand, ensconced themselves in the area over the next several days and constructed breastworks and a redoubt to defend the ground they had obtained against future attacks. It is believed that some of these breastworks are the ones still intact on Westview's grounds.

Eventually, Sherman’s armies cut the last of the rail lines south of Atlanta and drove the Confederacy from Jonesboro on September 1. As a result, the Confederacy, fearing another attack on Atlanta, evacuated the city; Union troops moved in and occupied it on September 2. Two and a half months later, Sherman would launch from Atlanta his infamous March to the Sea, capturing Savannah in December 1864, before turning northward to unify his armies and ultimately end the war.**

* Those bodies were disinterred and moved elsewhere; many were taken to Oakland Cemetery.

** Much of the above information (at times verbatim and with permission) was taken from Jeff Clemmons's "Atlanta's Historic Westview Cemetery," 2018.

Of note: did you know that the National Park Commission and Atlanta officials from 1899 to 1910 tried to create a triangular parkway to commemorate the Civil War? It would have stretched from Peachtree Creek to East Atlanta to Westview and back to Peachtree Creek.

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07/02/2025

Westview wishes all of our families - a couple days early - a Happy 4th of July.

Please note that our offices and the abbey (mausoleum) will be closed on Friday in observance of the holiday. Our grounds will be open during their normal hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Please stay safe and enjoy the long, upcoming weekend.

06/19/2025

Westview celebrates Juneteenth; may freedom always ring!

And to help celebrate the many African American voices and stories at Westview, join us on Sunday for a tour of Rest Haven, the cemetery's historically Black burial grounds.

The tour will also visit many 20th and 21st century African Americans graves, including those of Civil Rights leader Donald Lee Hollowell and professor Louise Thornton Hollowell; prominent Civil Rights doctor James Palmer; Kris Kross hip-hop/rap duo member James (Chris) Kelly; legendary Bronner Bros. co-founder Nathaniel Hawthorne Bronner Sr. and his son, Bronner Bros. director Darrow Bronner; and many others.

Tour starts at gatehouse and lasts approximately 2 hours. Wear appropriate shoes; there will be some walking in the woods. No public restrooms on Sundays; Westview's offices are closed.

Click here to sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rediscovering-rest-haven-tickets-1389821075249

06/16/2025

Sign up below and join us on Sunday for a tour of Rest Haven, Westview's historically Black burial grounds, as well as the graves of many prominent 20th century African Americans, including members of the Bronner family, Donald Lee Hollowell, and others.

Tour starts at gatehouse and lasts approximately 2 hours. Wear appropriate shoes; there will be some walking in the woods. No public restrooms on Sundays; Westview's offices are closed.

Explore Rest Haven, Westview Cemetery’s historic Black burial ground, with graves dating back to the 1880s in Atlanta’s largest cemetery.

06/13/2025

Westview would like to wish all the fathers out there, Happy Father's Day.

Westview Abbey will be open on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Cemetery grounds will be open their normal hours, 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.