ATLANTA - An Atlanta family is building the first new mausoleum at historic Oakland Cemetery in 25 years.<br>
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The cemetery, which opened in 1850, is the final resting place of "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell, Morris Brown College founder Bishop Wesley Gaines, and the Rich brothers, founders of Rich's department store.<br>
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"It's going to be a family burial site," said retired Federal Highway Administration manager Emory McClinton. "It's quite unique, where it's located, who all's in there. It's just a unique city environment and that's what we like."<br>
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Oakland's first mausoleum was built in 1872. The most recent was the Harwick-Luckie-Hemmer mausoleum built in 1978, said cemetery sexton Samuel Reed.<br>
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The cemetery still is active and averages about two burials a month, Reed said.<br>
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Historic Oakland Foundation restoration and landscape manager Kevin Kuharic noted that Oakland was built as a municipal cemetery.<br>
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"It's basically a mirror of the population of the city," he said.<br>
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The McClinton structure will be a columbarium - a mausoleum designed to hold cremation urns. Made of Georgia granite, it will include a stained glass window and stand 11 feet tall. It will be built near the grave of Civil War-era Gov. Joseph Brown.<br>
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"If you compare it to what's there, you'll see it's very much in that same sort of period, so it's not going to be out of character," said Susan Gwinner, historic district coordinator for the Urban Design Commission.
