In May 1884, twenty-seven leading Atlanta citizens, including L.P. Grant, Edward P. McBurney, Jacob Elsas, H.I.

Kimball and L. DeGive, petitioned the Superior Court of Fulton County to create the West View Cemetery Association.

The petition was granted in June, and during the rest of the year members of the Association gathered approximately 577 acres of farms, homesteads, and undeveloped land, around four miles west of downtown Atlanta, from more than a handful of owners.

In 1888, West View Cemetery opened a permanent receiving vault that was built into the side of a hill in Section 4.

The statue and burial ground completion ended years of failed attempts to memorialize the war, specifically the Battle of Ezra Church, part of which had taken place on the northern boundaries of the cemetery.

The Westview Floral Company, incorporated in 1891, grew flowers at greenhouses on the cemetery property for sale to lot holders and to the public.

McBurney would no longer run the cemetery; it would instead be headed by Atlanta real-estate mogul Frank Adair, with his brother, Forrest, acting as vice president.

Coca-Cola scion Asa Candler Jr. would serve as the association's board president and help guide the cemetery behind the scenes.

However, three years later, the Great Depression was in full swing and affected the Adair brothers’ hold on West View.

The memorial consisted of a fountain and a bas-relief depiction of the Last Supper sculpted by Fritz Paul Zimmer.

Due to advancing age and mounting legal issues, Candler sold West View to Lou O. Minear, Chester J. Sparks and Grover A. Godfrey Jr. in 1951.

It was at that time that “West View” became “Westview.” The new owners sold the cemetery to Frank C. Bowen and Raymond B. Nelson in 1952.

[2][3][4] Atlanta University President Edmund Asa Ware was buried in a plot that straddled the then-segregated white and African-American sections of the cemetery in 1885.