Buckhead homeowners association settles fight over preserving historic Black cemetery
By Dan Raby
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ATLANTA (WUPA) — The legal fight over Piney Grove Cemetery, a historic African-American burial ground tucked behind a large Buckhead condominium complex, is over.
On Monday, a Fulton County Superior Court judge approved a settlement between the Bluffs at Lenox Homeowners Association and the Friends of Piney Grove Cemetery Inc.
The settlement comes weeks after Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the homeowners association had a legal duty to maintain the cemetery grounds and to allow descendants and members of the public to access it.
“When a tract of land has been dedicated as a cemetery, it is perpetually devoted to the burial of the dead and may not be appropriated to any other purpose,” McBurney wrote, citing long-standing Georgia law.
In the new settlement, both sides agreed that the homeowners association will give the Friends of Piney Grove Cemetery Inc. an undisclosed amount to pay for the restoration and maintenance of the cemetery. The HOA can not disturb the area with any new development and must remove a “No Trespassing Sign” from where it is currently located to avoid confusion.
The public will be allowed to access the cemetery from dawn to dusk and can work to restore graves and clean the area.
Once part of a thriving 19th-century Black community in what is now Buckhead, Piney Grove Cemetery served residents of several neighboring settlements, including Lynwood Park and Johnsontown. The accompanying church congregation later relocated to Decatur, but the cemetery remained on its original land, even as nearby property was sold and redeveloped into upscale housing.
The cemetery is home to over 300 burials, some of which are unmarked. The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation believes that some of those who are buried in the area may have been slaves.
In the early 2000s, developers promised to preserve and maintain the site as a condition of rezoning, but descendants say those commitments were never honored. Over time, the grounds became overgrown and inaccessible, with fallen trees and trash damaging many of the graves.
Last year, the Georgia Trust named the cemetery one of its Places in Peril.
“Piney Grove Cemetery is a direct link to a time in Georgia when enslaved individuals were forced to toil in fields and homes,” the Georgia Trust wrote. “Piney Grove Cemetery serves as an important marker for Atlanta’s history, and its preservation is essential to the city’s cultural fabric.”
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