From the Notebook

The Public Comfort Building in Oakland Cemetery is the only surviving work in Atlanta known to have been designed by C. Walter Smith (1865-1910), an architect who worked for at least seven years as a draughtsman and assistant for G.L. Norrman before embarking on a fairly unremarkable solo career.

Built on a small hill in the western portion of the 48-acre cemetery, this 2-story structure includes a full basement and totals 2,800 square feet.¹ The exterior is faced in stucco-covered brick² and rusticated granite trimmings, and marble flooring³ is used on the front porch and in the basement.

Modeled after “the old Norman and English castellated churches,”⁴ the building’s design can be broadly defined as Romanesque, and its focal point is a 50-foot-high crenellated bell tower,⁵ heavily inspired by similar designs from G.L. Norrman.

Today, Oakland Cemetery refers to the entire structure as the “Bell Tower”.

An illustration from 1899 (pictured above) reveals the building’s original design: a one-story porch topped by battlements originally flanked the south facade, and a porte-cochère to accommodate wagons was attached to the east side.

Curiously, the final design was reversed, with the porte-cochère moved to the west side of the structure, likely one of “a few slight changes” announced before construction began.⁷

Roman arches on the porch and bell tower, and Gothic-style arched windows on the second floor completed the appearance of a small, storybook castle — again, Smith borrowed significantly from Norrman for the aesthetic.

In its original conception, the building was one of Smith’s better designs. Despite years of training under “the South’s most prominent architect”⁸ — his words — Smith’s skill never came close to Norman’s high level of artistry, although his work here was at least intriguing.

Unfortunately, the initial vision was compromised by the later addition of second-floor porches over the front porch and porte-cochère, topped with flat roofs and punctuated by incongruent half-round openings.

I suspect the porches were added circa 1908, when the cemetery spent $5,000 on a range of improvements⁹ following its first annual report to the city, which requested $1,000 for “needed changes and repairs in the main building.”¹⁰

The effect of the alterations is detrimental: the upper porches add unnecessary visual mass to the structure and pull focus away from the bell tower, robbing the entire composition of the uplifting, monumental effect Smith originally intended.

“Public comfort” was a polite 19th-century euphemism for restrooms, which were originally housed on the ground floor of the structure.

When the building was completed in October 1899, The Atlanta Journal delicately noted: “Here one now finds a convenience and comfort that was lacking for many years.”¹¹ I guess early visitors just had to hold it — or maybe piss on a grave.

There were initially six rooms in the building, including a ladies’ parlor and an “apartment for gentlemen.” All six rooms had tiled mantels,¹² which was apparently noteworthy. Two of the mantels remain intact.

The structure also included an office for the cemetery’s sexton,¹³ and Oakland Cemetery’s website claims the building contained a chapel, with the second floor used as the sexton’s residence. So many uses for such a small structure.

Despite its fanciful design, the building was, at heart, purely utilitarian, “suitable for the purposes for which it is intended,”¹⁴ as the Journal put it.

People need to pee, of course, but the building’s other raison d’être was concealed in the basement.¹⁵ The structure was built on the site of a converted 2-story farmhouse¹⁶ known as the “dead house”¹⁷ — you can see where this is going.

As the Journal explained:

There is a vault with eight catacombs and sixteen racks. This is as strong and substantial as could be made. For the retention of bodies for any length of time the catacombs will answer every purpose, as they are built to be air-tight for years to come. The racks, as a matter of course, are intended as a temporary place of keeping and are conveniently arranged. When the iron gate to the vault is locked entrance is practically impossible.¹⁸

Since Oakland is a public cemetery operated by the city of Atlanta, the building was funded by an appropriation from the city council.¹⁹ The Atlanta Building Company secured the contract with the lowest bid, and the project’s total cost was $4,600,²⁰ with $650 spent on the stone.²¹

Construction on the building was initially slated to begin on April 27, 1899,²² but was apparently delayed until June and completed in four months.²³

Although early plans called for the construction of one or two additional public comfort buildings in the cemetery,²⁴ those never materialized, and this structure remained the only significant public building at the site, altered many times over by piecemeal repairs and alterations.

When the Historic Oakland Foundation was formed in 1976 to preserve and maintain the cemetery’s historic integrity, the building became office space for the organization, with the ground floor converted into a small visitors center,²⁵ a function that it served for decades.

In 2022, as Oakland Cemetery prepared to build a much larger visitors’ center outside its main entrance, the former Public Comfort Building was given a gut renovation designed by Smith Dalia Architects, Atlanta’s finest firm for the adaptive reuse of historic structures.

The project included tearing out the hodgepodge of rooms on each floor for larger, open spaces, removing god-awful windows added to the second-floor porches, and making necessary accessibility alterations, which altered a portion of the front porch.^{26 27}

The building reopened later that year²⁸ as an event space: the fallback choice when owners don’t know what to do with a historic structure.

Following its renovation, the building now appears a little too clean and gleaming — I actually preferred it when it was worn and shabby — but it still has an undeniable anachronistic charm that’s uncommon in Atlanta.

And as one of just six known extant works by Walter Smith, it’s also a matter of curiosity, if nothing else.

References

1. Perspectives in Architecture: A new era for Oakland’s historic bell tower – Rough Draft Atlanta ↩︎
2. “New Building To Be Erected At Oakland Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, April 14, 1899, p. 7. ↩︎
3. “Big Improvement At The Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, October 13, 1899, p. 9. ↩︎
4. “New Building To Be Erected At Oakland Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, April 14, 1899, p. 7. ↩︎
5. ibid. ↩︎
6. Illustration credit: ibid. ↩︎
7. “Notice to Contractors.” The Atlanta Journal, April 4, 1899, p. 9. ↩︎
8. “A Card.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 1, 1893, p. 10. ↩︎
9. “Work Of Joyner For Last Two Years Reviewed”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 5, 1909, p. 4. ↩︎
10. “Cemetery Commission Makes First Report”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 5, 1908, p. 8. ↩︎
11. “New Building To Be Erected At Oakland Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, April 14, 1899, p. 7. ↩︎
12. “Big Improvement At The Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, October 13, 1899, p. 9. ↩︎
13. ibid. ↩︎
14. ibid. ↩︎
15. ibid. ↩︎
16. Sections and Landmarks – Oakland Cemetery ↩︎
17. “Big Improvement At The Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, October 13, 1899, p. 9. ↩︎
18. ibid. ↩︎
19. ibid. ↩︎
20. “New Building To Be Erected At Oakland Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, April 14, 1899, p. 7. ↩︎
21. “Mosley & Co. Get $390”. The Atlanta Journal, May 25, 1900, p. 5. ↩︎
22. “New Building To Be Erected At Oakland Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, April 14, 1899, p. 7. ↩︎
23. “Big Improvement At The Cemetery”. The Atlanta Journal, October 13, 1899, p. 9. ↩︎
24. “Cemetery Commission Makes First Report”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 5, 1908, p. 8. ↩︎
25. Perspectives in Architecture: A new era for Oakland’s historic bell tower – Rough Draft Atlanta ↩︎
26. ibid. ↩︎
27. Historic Oakland Cemetery Bell Tower – The Georgia Trust ↩︎
28. Ribbon cutting to be held for Oakland Cemetery’s refurbished Bell Tower – Rough Draft Atlanta ↩︎