Grounded In 141 Years Of Atlanta History

Among famous Atlanta family names, the Bowens reside mostly in anonymity; few recognize their impactful presence in our city and region.

“We’ve been blessed to be surrounded by so many who breathed and died Atlanta,” said Charles Bowen Jr., proprietor of the sprawling 600-acre Westview Cemetery near downtown.

Bowen men, four generations with more than a century unbroken by time, have provided Atlanta service in the lively business of death.

“My great-grandfather, Caleb Edgar Bowen, constructed the Philip Schutze masterpiece for Fred Patterson with H. M. Patterson & Son Spring Hill Chapel Funeral Home (Spring & 10th) in 1928,” added Mr. Bowen. “One of Atlanta’s most celebrated and well known structures.”

When President Roosevelt died in 1945, the Spring Hill team, led by Fred Patterson, brought the Atlanta casket and embalmed the president in Warm Springs.

“My great-grandfather died after construction of Spring Hill for Mr. Patterson, his son, my grandfather, took over the business then added a new wave of funeral product: Wilbert Concrete Burial Vaults (Piedmont Precast), constructed off Fulton Industrial,” said the Westminster School and Georgia Tech graduate. “The Wilbert Vaults revolutionized the burial business in the 1930s, keeping the ground from settling.”

Meanwhile, Westview was growing in Atlanta significance. The cemetery was created in 1884, by 21 local men buying three farms — land where Confederate and Union soldiers battled in 1864. 

Westview took on a different lilt under the direction of eccentric Coca-Cola scion Asa Candler Jr. between 1930 and 1952 — most famously, the construction of the Westview Abbey with 11,444 crypts in 1943. 

The Atlanta millionaire necropolis czar had the death business all figured out: ambulance service, funeral home, embalming, and a flower service. His brusque manner led to angry families and fired-up legislators. In 1951, the state legislature moved to break up his monopoly of grief. 

The Asa Candler Jr.’s cemetery vision was grand and unfinished. As his health began to fade, legal issues mounted in the early 1950s. The cemetery was sold to three men in 1951; one year later it sold again, to Frank C. Bowen and Raymond Nelson. That year, Westview Cemetery Inc. was liquidated, and all its assets were transferred to The Westview Cemetery Inc., which became a nonprofit.

“Asa Candler operated the cemetery for 20 years. We are over 70 years for our family,” offered Mr. Bowen. “We take very seriously the word perpetuity, slow and steady in everything we do, whether trees, or repaving roads, all toward the long view of the decades ahead.”

The slow and steady approach also applies to employees. Westview Trustee Martha Powers died last year at 103. She worked at the cemetery office more than 70 years, and began as Mr. Candler’s executive assistant. 

“She is now buried here, and is greatly missed,” Mr. Bowen said.

One of the challenges for Westview is social media and young people coming on the property filming TikTok vignettes. “We are okay with that as long as everyone is respectful, but not so much if the idea is a vampire segment,” laughed Mr. Bowen.

Westview Cemetery has always had its own means of revenue streams. Decades ago, the large greenhouses provided flowers across Georgia. Today, television (Ozark) and movie productions (Captain America) often use the chapel, mausoleum, and grounds for shoots. “We school the production companies on behavior because we still have funerals weekly,” Mr. Bowen said.

As for the future, Mr. Bowen’s 29-year-old son, who attended Woodward Academy and the University of Alabama, is next to oversee the cemetery. “We have other family (cousins) involved too.”

The Friends of Historic Westview Cemetery has been set up to aid in the upkeep of the property and its amazing infrastructure. 

“Among the projects, The Gatehouse structure and the Romanesque Bell Tower,” said Mr. Bowen. “We have so much history here: Laurel Hill; Terrace Hill; Rest Haven; an African-American section; and God’s Acre, a pauper section used by the City of Atlanta until 1925.”

There is also hope to refurbish the stained glass windows in the Abbey’s Chapel, 38 panels depicting the life of Christ, originally placed in 1943.

Westview is 50 percent underdeveloped. There is much to do and much to see. 

The Bowens' family business is Atlanta evergreen, builders of vaults, and stewards of 141 years with 125,000 in their final resting place. 

“We are in it for the long view, perpetual care," Mr. Bowen said. "Time here is defined differently than outside our gates.”