Oakland Cemetery

Atlanta's oldest cemetery, founded in 1850 and now a 48-acre Victorian garden-cemetery on the eastern edge of downtown. The graves include Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones (his stone is covered in golf balls left by visitors), 6,900 Confederate dead, several Atlanta mayors, and the Jewish, African American, and pauper sections of the segregated 19th-century city.

The Friends of Oakland Cemetery run free guided tours; the visitor centre at the entrance has maps for self-guided walks. Spring (azaleas, dogwoods) and October (the Hallowe'en candlelit tours) are the busiest times. Free to enter.

things to do sight
A story
Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the Wind, is buried in the Mitchell family plot at Oakland — a few hundred yards from the cemetery's Confederate section, the historical material she drew on to write her novel. She was killed by a drunk driver on Peachtree Street in 1949 at the age of 48.