Imagine stepping into a time capsule. That’s what it feels like to be at Old Hardman Cemetery, nestled on Emory University’s Clairmont campus. You’ll find a treasure trove of history right here. It’s a small, quiet cemetery, but it holds stories as big as the history of Atlanta.
Step back in time. It’s 1830, and Naman Hardman builds a church – the Primitive Baptist Church in Christ at Hardman’s – where the cemetery sits. The structure wasn’t there long, though. In 1864, during the Battle of Atlanta, the church was used as a field hospital for General Sherman’s army. Even General Sherman himself stayed at Oliver Powell’s house near the church while he planned the march into Atlanta.
The cemetery is a time machine, though. You’ll find the grave of Rody Harriet Hardman, a little girl, just a year and a half old when she died in 1825. Only a short distance from her lies the grave of her father, John Hardman, who was laid to rest more than half a century later. Even the Hardman family church itself is resting beneath the grass, a reminder of the past. And just as the Hardmans once lived here, it’s a place where history continues.
And even though Atlanta is bustling all around, it’s fascinating how peaceful the cemetery is too. There is a sense of quiet reflection that lets the whispers of the past speak freely. Old Hardman Cemetery isn’t just a cemetery. It’s a chapter in our story, a little piece of Atlanta preserved just the way it was.