The Center Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery on Center Street in
Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...
. Established about 1670, it is the town's oldest cemetery, and the burial site for many of the city's civic and industrial leaders. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1997.
Description and history
The Center Street Cemetery is located in Wallingford's town center, occupying most of a block bounded by South Colony Road, Center Street, South Orchard Street, and Prince Street. It is about in size, its terrain basically level. Its main entrance is near the western end of its Center Street frontage, demarcated by an Egyptian Revival gateway. A secondary entrance is located on Orchard Street, and the internal circulation is defined in part by a series of
allée
In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is traditionally a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its La ...
s lined by mature
sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
trees, with gravel and grass paths in between. Graves are generally organized in open settings -- there are no fenced burial plots. Layout of the burials varies depending on the practices of the period: early graves, mainly in the western third, were placed without noticeable planning, while the eastern two-thirds are organized into a grid pattern. Funerary markers consist of a cross-section of materials and styles, spanning more than three centuries of history.
Lyman Hall
Lyman Hall (April 12, 1724 – October 19, 1790) was an American Founding Father, physician, clergyman, and statesman who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. Hall County is named after him. He ...
, a native of
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
who moved to
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
and was a signer of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
in 1776, is memorialized here, as is
Moses Yale Beach
Moses Yale Beach (January 7, 1800 – July 18, 1868) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and publisher, who started the Associated Press, and is credited with originating print syndication. His fortune, as of 1846, amounted to ...
, newspaper publisher and founder of the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
. The tomb, set on the north end of the 300-year-old Center Street Cemetery, lies near the graves of such other notaries as
Thomas Yale
Thomas Yale (1525/6–1577) was the Chancellor, Vicar general and Official Principal of the Head of the Church of England : Matthew Parker, 1st Archbishop of Canterbury, and later on, of Edmund Grindal, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury, during the E ...
, brother of the founder of
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
; and Joseph Benham, whose daughter and granddaughter were the last people in New England to be tried for
witchcraft
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
.
In addition to such notables are stones marking the graves of the town's first settlers and those of soldiers who fought in the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...
, the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and every other major conflict up to the present.
See also
*
References
External links
Find A Grave
NY Times article re Cemetery
{{National Register of Historic Places
Wallingford, Connecticut
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Cemeteries in New Haven County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut
1670 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies
Cemeteries established in the 17th century