Q: Traveling on I-75 South after the split with I-85, below downtown, is a small cemetery. It’s in the middle of the exit to Cleveland Avenue. It is almost inaccessible. Strange place for a cemetery. Hundreds of thousands pass it weekly. Any chance of looking into it?
A: You are referring to the Gilbert Memorial Cemetery. The graveyard is on the left, as you exit I-75 to Cleveland Avenue SW, across from a Krystal fast food restaurant. The area, a little less than the width of a football field, is well kept with 53 headstones in perfect rows.
A fence separates the interstate from the area. You can walk to the cemetery by taking the sidewalk next to Cleveland Avenue.
The John Charles Birdine Jr. Memorial Bridge goes over I-75 at the intersection.
A row of about 20 trees would normally make it difficult to see the area during the summer. But during a recent spring day, it’s easy to see because the leaves are not fully out.
The headstones represent most likely only a fraction of the slaves buried on I-75.
The AJC reported in 2012: “The property once belonged to plantation owner Jeremiah Gilbert, who in 1861 set aside a portion for a cemetery for slaves and their family members, according to a federal court opinion. In the 1950s, the cemetery was destroyed by persons unknown, according to a historic marker, and by the early 198os, it was holding up a major DOT project on I-75 and the Cleveland Avenue ramps.”
A federal court opinion said that an investigation revealed that more than 1,000 people were buried there, the AJC reported.
A Georgia historic marker at the site reads, “This memorial is dedicated to the memory of those individuals, known and unknown, here interred.”
Of the headstones in the plot, six are crosses. Fifty-one are commemorative markers with only names.
Two are decorative and engraved with names, birth and death dates (1896 and 1924).
Overlooking the cemetery is a small hill, next to Cleveland Avenue, with a white obelisk memorial. Names are engraved on two of the four sides. The small marker is hidden by overgrown bushes and weeds. The area is filled with trash and smells of urine. Two homeless men watched visitors to the cemetery from their perch.
Gilbert Memorial Cemetery, 314-320 Cleveland Ave. SW, Atlanta
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