Airmount Grave Shelter And Cemetery

Airmount Grave Shelter And Cemetery. . , Front: , This Greek Revival style brick structure is known as the Hope Family Grave Shelter. Constructed in 1853, it is listed on the National Register of Historical places. The unusual splayed eaves and vaulted or “compass” interior ceiling can be traced to Eastern Seaboard church yards in Delaware and Virginia, and this is believed to the only grave shelter of its type in Alabama. The shelter covers graves of six members of the family of John Hope, who donated the fenced area of the cemetery and the adjoining site of Airmount Church to the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America in 1862. , (Continued on other side) , Reverse: , (Continued from other side) , Graves in the fenced area of the cemetery date from the 1840’s and contain family names of Hope, Houston, Murley, Gildersleeve, Easterling, Kennedy, Champion, Jones, Baugh, Steed, and Lowry. , Restoration of the shelter was completed by Charlie Bulloch of Greene County in 2002 through efforts of the Clarke County Historical Society, the Thomas L. Turner Charitable Trust, the Alabama Historical Commission, the Hope family, Louis M. Finlay, Jr., and others. In 2009 Hope Family Properties deeded the cemetery to the Clarke County Historical Society.