Hillside Cemetery, Anniston Alabama
Samuel Noble led the town council in appointing a cemetery committee in early 1876 composed of the mayor Charles O'Rourke, council members John Loyd, J. B. McCain, and himself. The committee made provisions for planting shade trees and grass, grading the paths, and fencing the area. (Town council minutes in 1876-77 reflect the council's continuing interest in the progress of the cemetery.) Later in the development of the model city Samuel Noble invited the famous landscape architect N. F. Barrett (who had worked on Pullman, Illinois) to devise a plan of beautification for Anniston in the 1880s. Barrett's plans, which reportedly cost $50,000, included the town's parks and cemetery, the Tyler and Noble estates, and other large estates. The 1890 city map shows an elaborate plan for the cemetery's layout while later maps reveal the more simplified plan in existence. The city deeded the land to the newly organized Hillside Cemetery Association in 1896, but the Association returned control to the city on June 9th, 1923.
In addition to the Daniel Tyler (1799-1882) and Samuel Noble (1834-1888) grave sites, Tyler's son Alfred Lee (1834-1907) and his wife Annie Tyler (1938-1914) are buried at Hillside. Annie is the one for whom the town of Anniston was named. Their son Alfred Lee (1866-1940) as well as Daniel Tyler's son Edmund Leighton Tyler (1838-1906) are also buried there.
Samuel Noble's wife and daughter Addie Noble McCaa are interred there. Other grave sites are those of the town's first stonemason, whose work can be seen in the various churches, and who organized the First Methodist Church, Simon Jewell (1827-1911); John McKelroy (1843-1894), first president of the Anniston City Land Company; Dr. Richard P. Huger (1851-1922), the town's first physician; Henry Constantine (1855-1937), a nearby real estate developer who built a block of downtown buildings in the 1880s and 1890s; and J. J. Willett (1860-1955), one of the town's earliest and leading lawyers; among others.
The Hillside Cemetery, designed by N. F. Barrett, noted landscape architect who assisted in the design of the company town of Pullman, Illinois, was originally prepared for the workers of the Woodstock Iron Company.
The cemetery is indicative of the attitude of the company founders, Samuel Noble and David Tyler, that their workers be provided the necessities of life, including provisions for burial.
Hillside Cemetery's funerary art contrasts in many cases to traditional folk memorials found in Alabama during the period. A variety of examples of funerary art styles can be found exhibited in the cemetery. These include elaborate obelisks, memorial statuary utilizing various forms, pedestal urns, traditional crosses as well as more moderate headstones and flat markers.
Site Description
The city's first cemetery is located on the east side of town on the side of a sloping hill overlooking the city, bounded on the west by Highland Avenue, on the east by Calhoun Place (formerly Myrtle Avenue), and lying between Tenth and Eleventh Streets. The town council selected the site in 1876 because of its elevation, good drainage, and mixed gravel, clay, and sandy soil. The older part of the cemetery was a square block, 420 by 420 feet.
The grounds are planted with oak, magnolia, juniper, and cedar trees, a variety of shrubs, and grass. The steep slope on the west is paved with stones. The original carriage ways and footpaths still divide the cemetery into four equal parts surrounding a central circular area.
The older monuments, from elaborate obelisks, statues, and flat markers to more modest headstones, mark the graves of the town's founders and leading early families.
A newer section, Highland Cemetery, now adjoins Hillside to the east of Calhoun Place.
Samuel Noble gravesite (1984)
West elevation (1984)
Daniel Tyler graveside (1984)
Noble Family monument (1984)
Edmund Tyler gravestone (1984)
Constantine gravestone (1984)
North elevation (1984)
