Marsh Williams
2 months ago
Didn't think a cemetery would be the highlight of the trip. It was.
This isn't my usual kind of tour. I'll admit I dragged my feet a little. Bonaventure won me over inside ten minutes.
The setting does most of the heavy lifting. Live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, monuments and statues tucked around every bend, the Wilmington River sitting right there at the edge. It's beautiful in a way that catches you off guard. Less spooky, more peaceful.
Our guide knew the place cold. Real stories about the people buried here, the history of the city, the families and the famous names. Never dry, never rushed. We learned a ton and laughed more than I expected to.
And the photos. We came home with a stack of keepers. The light through the trees, the weathered stone, the moss. Hard to take a bad shot in there. Bring a real camera if you've got one.
Easy to walk, well kept, and worth carving out the time for even if "cemetery tour" isn't on your list. It wasn't on mine. I'm glad it ended up there.
Fun, a little weird in the best way, and absolutely worth it. We'll be back.
Review from Google
Stephanie Cummings
4 months ago
Wow! What a beautiful peaceful place. I am so happy I took a few hours on my trip to visit. Spanish moss dripping from the majestic trees. Hard to describe but this is truly the most beautiful cemetery I have wondered through. It's a southern tropocial garden full of breath taking monuments and statues. I am very glad I did not miss it.
Review from Google
Very cool old cemetery for those who like spooky stuff and historic sites. Many notable grave sites in this cemetery. It is definitely a labyrinth and we didn’t even get to find all of the spots we wanted to. They have an interesting gift shop, the lady running it was a little eccentric and not the most welcoming. Other than that it is a neat spot to check out in Savannah.
Review from Google
Sitting on the Wilmington River just outside Savannah’s historic district, Bonaventure spans 160 acres of live oaks, Spanish moss, azaleas, and some of the most striking funerary sculpture you’ll find anywhere in the country.
I walked it self-guided with my husband, and even without a guide connecting every thread, the place tells its own story — through the markers, the monuments, the epitaphs, and the sheer weight of who’s buried here.
The history surfaces as you walk. Johnny Mercer — Savannah native, lyricist behind “Moon River,” co-founder of Capitol Records, with over 1,500 songs to his name — is buried here, his legacy complicated in the way many Southern artists of his era are when you look closely.
Conrad Aiken, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, whose Savannah childhood ended at eleven when his father committed a murder-suicide, later returned and is buried beneath a bench-style monument.
And then there’s Little Gracie Watson. She died of pneumonia two days before Easter at six years old, and her lifelike statue — sculpted from a photograph — remains the most visited grave in the cemetery. Visitors still leave toys and trinkets at the iron fence surrounding her. It’s impossible not to feel something standing there.
It’s also worth walking in with eyes open about who else is celebrated here.
Alexander Lawton, whose prominent monument overlooks the Wilmington River, was a Confederate Brigadier General who favored Georgia’s secession and later served as the Confederacy’s Quartermaster General. His grave is grand and frequently pointed out on tours. That’s a piece of the cemetery’s character worth knowing, not to avoid the place, but to engage with it honestly.
Bonaventure has captured the imaginations of writers, poets, naturalists, photographers, and filmmakers for more than 150 years — and walking through it, that lineage makes complete sense. The monuments aren’t headstones.
They’re art — angels, lambs, obelisks, carved portraits, each one a small biography waiting to be read. Some of those biographies are beautiful. Some are complicated. That’s American history in a nutshell.
I left wishing I had booked a tour. The cemetery is vast enough that self-guided means catching glimpses of stories rather than the full picture. The Bonaventure Historical Society offers free guided tours on the second weekend of every month , and several paid walking and golf cart tours are available.
Next visit, I’m doing one.
Admission is always free. Go slow, wear comfortable shoes, and give it more time than you need. Five stars — and go informed.
Review from Google
