ATLANTA — Atlanta city leaders broke ground Tuesday on a new visitor center that will be constructed at the historic Oakland Cemetery.
The center will share the cemetery’s history with the hundreds of thousands of people who visit each year.
The new 10,000-square-foot facility will stand just across from the main gate of the Oakland Cemetery.
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The dream of a visitor center began in 2007 when the Historic Oakland Foundation and Invest Atlanta acquired the corner lot where it will stand.
They envisioned someday building a visitor center for one of Atlanta’s oldest and most treasured historic sites.
“Oakland is the good, the bad, and the ugly of Atlanta’s history. The pride and the prejudice. And every day we work to preserve that history so that we can learn from it,” Historic Oakland Foundation’s Richard Harker said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The new center will cost $8 million.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens calls Oakland Cemetery his favorite place in the city.
“Spending time at Oakland Cemetery helps us to better understand our community and how we can chart a more just and equitable future together,” Dickens said.
The visitor center will feature an expanded museum store, an atrium, a multipurpose classroom and event space, meeting space for rent, and offices for the Historic Oakland Foundation.
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Last year, about 125,000 visitors came to the Oakland Cemetery.
The visitor center is made possible through the Historic Oakland Foundation’s $14 million capital campaign.
The center is expected to open in the middle of 2025.
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