New Hope Cemetery is located on Chamblee Dunwoody Road behind the KinderCare Childcare Center in Dunwoody. The marker at the cemetery, placed many years ago by Dunwoody Preservation Trust, dates the cemetery to 1859.
The name New Hope comes from the church that was once next door to this cemetery. The church was New Hope Presbyterian. It was the third church to be established in Dunwoody, after Ebenezer Primitive Baptist Church and Providence Baptist Church. Ebenezer started out as a brush arbor church on the corner diagonally from where a log cabin was later built, followed by a white painted building and today’s brick church.
Providence Baptist Church was established in 1953 near the site of New Hope Church and Cemetery. Maps drawn by Federal soldiers after the Civil War indicate the location of Providence church along what is now Chamblee Dunwoody Road and the community is also labeled as Providence. Later, Providence Baptist Church moved to the intersection of Mt. Vernon Highway and Glenridge Drive in Sandy Springs.
The New Hope Presbyterian Church was disbanded in 1917.
The cemetery has many names you still hear and see around Dunwoody, as well as others perhaps not so well known. Family names include Cheek, Spruill, Blackburn, Warbington, Donaldson, Warnock, Kirby, Manning and Weldon, just to name a few. Many of their stories are told in the book “The Story of Dunwoody” by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.
For example, Joberry Cheek, 1850-1935, built the Dunwoody farmhouse at the corner of Chamblee-Dunwoody Road and Mount Vernon Road and built a cotton gin and saw mill across the road from the house at the southeast corner of the intersection.
Cemeteries can provide history about people other than their birth and death dates. It may reveal the occupation of the deceased, what organizations they were in, or if they participated in a war. Although, not every war veteran has a marker that gives that history.
One of the prominent markers at New Hope Cemetery is of Dr. Duke, who lived along with in the triangle formed by Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Roberts Drive along with his wife Georgia. The Duke family also owned the land where the cemetery is located at one time. They donated it to the church in 1888.
An article by Vivian Price, written in 1983 for the DeKalb News Sun newspaper, tells of a major cleanup done at the cemetery. It had become very overgrown at the time, and Dunwoody resident Geraldine Warbington led the cleanup project. Eleven dump truck loads of debris were carried away. When all the work was complete, Hugh Spruill said the cemetery looked the best it had in fifty years.
Since that time, a fund to maintain the cemetery was set up by some long time Dunwoody families and the Dunwoody Preservation Trust ensures that the funds are used for that purpose. However, the cemetery has reached the point where more funds are needed to repair the broken headstones, broken and falling fence, and many other issues. More on this to come in an upcoming Dunwoody Crier article.
Reverend William G. Akin (1829-1914) is laid to rest at New Hope Cemetery. He was the first preacher of Providence Baptist Church. His home was where Dunwoody’s fire station (the DeKalb County station) is located on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road.
Other sources cited include: Dunwoody, Georgia Historic Cemeteries: Silent Storytellers by Phillip B. Anglin
The restored obelisk marker of Dr. Warren Duke.