Bull Street Cemetery was a Jewish cemetery established in Savannah, Province of Georgia, in 1733. Today, a memorial in the median of West Oglethorpe Avenue, at Bull Street, erected in 1983 by the trustees of the Mordecai Sheftall Cemetery, marks the former location of the cemetery, which contained around twenty graves when it was built over around a century after it opened.[1] The memorial says: "Original 1733 burial plot allotted by James Edward Oglethorpe to the Savannah Jewish Community."
| Bull Street Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1733 |
| Closed | circa 1820 |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 32°04′37″N 81°05′35″W / 32.076951°N 81.092918°W |
| No. of graves | Approximately 20 |
| Find a Grave | Bull Street Cemetery |
On November 3, 1761, George III "conveyed a certain half lot of land in Holland Tything, Percival Ward, to David Truan." This land was at the northwest corner of today's Bull Street and Oglethorpe Avenue.[2]
Several Jews were interred here before the family cemeteries were established. To honor the services of Benjamin Sheftall, one of the original forty or so Jews who arrived in Savannah on July 11, 1733, South Broad Street (as Oglethorpe Avenue was originally known) was extended to include within its bounds the unmarked burial of Sheftall's mother.[3]
The burial ground was closed in the first half of the 19th century, with some of the headstones that would otherwise have been discarded used as doorsteps at homes in the neighborhood.[3]
Notable burials
edit- Abraham Minis (1694–1757), European immigrant to, and early settler of, Savannah
- Perla Sheftall (died 1736), wife of Benjamin
References
edit- ^ "Visiting Savannah, GA's Cemeteries". Go South! Savannah. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
- ^ Renck, Ellen. "Savannah: Chatham County | Georgia GA | International Jewish Cemetery Project". IAJGS Cemetery Project. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
- ^ a b Savannah's Old Jewish Burial Ground, The Georgia Historical Quarterly, volume 34, no. 4 (December 1950), p. 267