Greenwich Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. It stands on the site of the former Greenwich Plantation and became an addition to Bonaventure Cemetery (itself on the former grounds of Bonaventure Plantation) in 1933.Greenwich Cemetery Park – EMC Engineering, Inc. It is the newest of the city's four municipal cemeteries.
The entrance to the cemetery, located at 330 Bonaventure Road, is shared with Bonaventure Cemetery. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate Gaston Tomb of William Gaston.
History In 1896, long after Greenwich Plantation was demolished, naval stores magnate Spencer P. Shotter purchased the land and built a Beaux-Arts mansion and extensive gardens. The house and grounds were used in several silent films (including Stolen Moments)"Greenwich At Bonaventure: The Mansion, The Gardens & Statuary, The Movies: Rudolph Valentino-Stolen Moments Shooting Locations – Savannah GA" – Eartfilm.com before the house burned to the ground in 1923."Before Midnight, Bonaventure and the Bird Girl Exhibition Guide" – Telfair Museums The City of Savannah purchased the land in 1933."Bonaventure Cemetery: An Iconographical Insight into Victorian Views on Death" – SouthernArt.UA.edu With it came fourteen of Shotter's statues, which the city placed into storage. They remained stored until 1965, at which point they were loaned to Savannah's Telfair Museums. In 2020, the city approved the sale of sixteen of the statues,Greenwich Statuary Stores Pieces – Savannah.gov with a collective price tag of $400,000. One item was kept because it was part of a set of two, the other part being on display at Telfair."Savannah City Council votes to sell all but one ancient Roman, Italian statues" – Fox 28 Savannah, April 9, 2020
Greenwich Park A 3.5-acre section of the cemetery has been made into a passive park or meditation area for visitors.
Notable burials Danny Hansford (1960–1981)Greenwich Cemetery Records – Interment.net Cecelia Seiler (1933–2014), wife of Sonny Seiler and co-owner of Uga"Cecelia Seiler, ‘mom of Uga,’ dies in Savannah" – Athens Banner-Herald, June 5, 2014
References
External links Greenwich Cemetery – SavannahGA.gov Greenwich Cemetery Savannah, GA – YouTube, April 1, 2012