Getting into the “Holiday Spirit” at Oakland Cemetery

Oakland Cemetery is Downtown Atlanta may be known for its Halloween tours, but did you know they also host a Holiday Tour of Eternal Homes every December? Guests can get into the “holiday spirit” by touring festively-decorated mausoleums, learning about Atlanta’s pioneering families, and hearing about holiday traditions common in the Victorian Era.

This year’s tour will include the Henson-Parris, Dodd, Winship, Peck, and Sanders-Hickey Mausoleums, as well as the Bell Tower and Clyde King Monument. Here’s a sneak peek of one of the stops (all scripts researched and written by Megan Hodgkiss):

Welcome to the final resting place of Atlanta businessman Clyde King and his family. Clyde was one of the founders of the Atlanta Plow Company – later renamed the King Plow Company. For more than 80 years, King Plow was one of the leading manufacturers of farming equipment in the South. They shipped all over the U.S. and even internationally. Has anyone been to the King Plow Arts Center in West Midtown? That’s where Clyde’s factory was located.

Clyde and his wife, Clara Belle, lived in a large, beautiful house off Ponce de Leon Avenue in Northeast Atlanta. Clara Belle loved her home so much, she told her husband that when she passed away, she wanted to be buried in the backyard. But, unfortunately, that was against Atlanta city laws at the time. So, Clyde commissioned this replica of their home, so that Clara Belle could forever lie in its shadow. Clyde and their four children are also laid to rest here.

The King home is still standing; it’s located on the corner of Oakdale Road and Ponce de Leon Avenue. The house has a different street number now (1386 Ponce) and is currently the national headquarters of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

Now, for those of you who have visited the King Plow Arts Center, you know it’s a fantastic place to listen to live music. Which brings me to your Victorian holiday tradition: Christmas carolers. Many of the songs that we associate with the holidays, such as “Silent Night,” “The 12 Days of Christmas,” and “Oh, Christmas Tree,” were written in Austria and Germany and made their way to the US in the mid- to late-1800s. Families like the Kings would have seen strolling carolers in their neighborhood – which is when one person plays the violin, a second person is singing, and a third person holds the sheet music. People would stop and listen to the performance, or perhaps invite the carolers inside their homes for a warm drink. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your tour!

For more information about Oakland’s Holiday Tour of Eternal Homes, visit their events calendar. Happy holidays, and I hope to see you there!