I first visited College View Cemetery in July 2025. Though the edge closest to a neighboring church was kept mowed, the cemetery was in rough shape. Collapsed vaults, broken headstones, exploding kudzu. Back in February, though, One Square Mile Project Inc. began to tackle College View’s disrepair. Their progress in just eight months is astounding and worthy of loud praise. 

This morning I went back out to College View for a hands-on workshop on documenting, restoring, resetting, and cleaning headstones. 

A new marker reveals that College View was founded about 1896 and is roughly the size of Wilson’s Vick Cemetery.

One Square Mile Project is a community-driven initiative in College Park focused on restoring College View Cemetery and honoring the history of the surrounding African-American community. 

I was excited to see that the workshop was led by Ashley Shares of Oakland Cemetery and Level Spirit Preservation and Kellea Roberson, a recent Georgia State University Master of Heritage Preservation graduate.

Now on my to-do list: create a form like this for a survey of Odd Fellows.

College View is full of Eldren Bailey markers.

Cox Brothers offered Cadillac goods and services, like the fancy metal plate on this headstone.

Repairing an Eldren Bailey headstone.

Resetting a row of headstones. 

Many thanks to One Square Mile for their preservation efforts at College Park and for the wonderful opportunity to learn best practices.