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My grandmother, Mae McDaniel Griffith, 1898., at age 14. The photo is torn at the lower right corner |
Although my blog is usually devoted to interior design, architecture, antiques and Anglophilia, at times I find myself wanting to write about something else, which in this case, is my family. While in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta this past Friday, on my maternal grandmother's birthday, as my daughter Sarah and I rode through Westview Cemetery to place flowers on family graves, I once again started thinking about the family that lived in West End, and what the area means to me.
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Mae McDaniel Griffith and Herman Griffith |
My grandmother walked to her job as a cashier at Food Town on Westview Drive. She later retired from the Sears and Roebuck in West End, having worked there for 17 years. As time passed, my mother, Elizabeth Anne Nunn Poliquin (1938-2009) and her brother Robert Frederick Nunn, also lived at the house on East Ontario. And then along came me, and my mother and I lived there for a time because my mother and father were often separated (theirs was a tumultuous marriage). Annie Sanders, nanny to my mother and uncle and Jacqueline of all trades to my grandmother (that's the female connotation of "Jack") , lived a few blocks away on Altoona Place. She continued to work for our family until she was well into her 80s, although I use the term "worked for my family" loosely - she was family.
Little Mother is interred inside the mausoleum at the historic Westview Cemetery, which is less than a mile from our home on East Ontario. She made my grandmother, her only child, promise that she would never put Little Mother "in the cold earth." So instead, she is in the mausoleum behind a cold slab of marble, but who would dare argue with her? We lost my grandmother in 1999 and she is buried at Westview, along with my grandfather who passed in 1988. My great-grandfather Herman is buried near my grandmother and grandfather, having no intention of being buried with my grandmother in the mausoleum. By the time she passed away, they had long been divorced and he had moved to a boarding house on Peachtree Street. My Aunt Lois, her husband Jim, and my sister-in-law Tammy Banks, are also buried at Westview. My beloved mother is buried closer to where we now reside.
Westview Cemetery, founded in 1884, is one of the most beautiful in all of America. Its original gate is one of the oldest existing structures in Atlanta. Back in the day, it was not unusual to go to Westview for family photo ops, especially on Easter and Mother's and Father's Day. The mausoleum, the largest of its kind and considered the grandest in the US, dates to 1943 and features stunning stained glass windows, a cathedral-like chapel, hidden alcoves, and halls, all in a Gothic, Moorish architecture that is awe inspiring. With several hundred acres of interment, Westview is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, and is the largest in the Southeast. It consists of 582 acres, only half of which is developed. It is a nonprofit cemetery, as the land was donated by a prominent Atlantan. Before the civil rights movement, African Americans were prohibited from being buried or from even entering Westview. There is also a large Jewish section. In 1918, its receiving vault held the bodies of the victims of the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic until they could be buried properly. It also contains part of the site of the Civil War Battle of Ezra Church.
This blog begins with the women who lived in West End, and ends with my daughter Sarah, who represents the fifth generation in this line of women in my family. This line of women on my maternal side also includes my cousin Vicki, her daughter Amber, my Aunt Shirley and my Aunt Dora. My sister-in-law, Stacy ranks up there with the West End women as well, even though she is in Vancouver Washington and has probably never been to West End- we still love her.
One final note: I hesitated to include this last bit in my post, but decided that it is a part of the history of the house as much as my family, and must be mentioned in order to honor those who came after us. 571 East Ontario came to be remembered by many for a tragic event that horrified Atlanta for years. When we moved from West End to College Park, GA, my grandmother sold the house to a Ms. Willie Mathis. On March 5, 1980, Ms. Mathis' son, Jeffrey, age 10, walked up the street to the same Food Town where my grandmother once worked, to run an errand for his mother. He would never been seen alive again. His skeletal remains were found 11 months later, a victim of the alleged Atlanta serial murderer, Wayne Williams. It is hard to imagine that this tragedy occurred on this same beautiful street. Rest in Peace little Jeffrey There is a caption with each photo below with details - please read |
My grandmother, age one year
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My grandmother and her son, Robert Frederick (Fred) Nunn, 1933 |
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My grandmother, pictured 3rd from right on top, with friends, unknown place or people -again, wish I knew |
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My grandmother and grandfather, Charlie Ford, US Army, pictured in front of a fountain at Westview Cemetery, 1949 |
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My grandfather posing at Westview Abbey Mausoleum, 1949 |
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Ceiling, Westview Abbey Chapel |
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Stained glass, Westview Abbey |
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Westview Abbey |
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Another photograph of the chapel |
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The receiving vault at Westview -- this is where the victims of the 1918 Spanish Influenza were held until burial |
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Westview Cemetery |
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Stained Glass - Westview Abbey Mausoleum |
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This door is about 10 feet from my great-grandmother's resting place inside the wall of the Abbey Mausoleum |
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This is the window on the opposite end of the hall where my great-grandmother is interred |
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Another view of the chapel - I have sat here for quite some time - my daughter finds it beautiful but very creepy - I find it peaceful and lovely |
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Chapel - again |
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Exterior view of the Abbey |
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