Spring Grove Cemetery is a cemetery on Main Street in the Clay-Arsenal neighborhood of

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. Established in 1845, it is one of the city's oldest cemeteries, and its first private non-sectarian cemetery. Its burials include a number of the city's high-profile civic and business leaders, as well as a substantial indigent population, and artist

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

. 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 2011.

Description and history

Spring Grove Cemetery is located north of downtown Hartford, on the west side of Main Street between Mahl Avenue and Capen Street in the Clay-Arsenal neighborhood. It covers about of basically flat terrain, with only gentle undulations. It is accessed via a wrought iron archway on Main Street, which provides access to its network of circulating roads. Those roads are laid out in a basically rectilinear grid, and are finished in a combination of pavement, gravel, and grass. The oldest monument is that of the Page family, and is dated 1845. Its basic layout is little altered since its founding, and it retains most of its 19th-century features; a memorial chapel built in 1884 was destroyed by fire in 1904. The land on which the cemetery was established was farmland owned by the Page family when Stephen Page buried his wife there in 1845. The Pages then proceeded to sell burial plots (in contrast to typical cemetery practice of selling a right to interment) to others. In 1864 a number of plot owners banded together to purchase the entire cemetery, establishing the non-profit association that now manages the property three years later. In 1884, the association hired landscape designer Thomas Brown McClunnie to lay out the cemetery's northwest quadrant. In contrast to the

rural cemetery A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...

movement, McClunnie's parklike setting emphasized a simple rectangular layout, rather than winding lanes that conformed to local topography.

Notable burials

Frances Ellen Burr Frances Ellen Burr (June 4, 1831 - February 9, 1923) was an American suffragist and writer from Connecticut. Biography Burr was born on June 4, 1831, in Hartford, Connecticut, and was the youngest of fourteen children. Her brother went on to pub ...

(1831-1923) *

(1826–1900) *

Ezra Clark Jr. Ezra Clark Jr. (September 12, 1813 – September 26, 1896) was a U.S. Representative from Connecticut. Born in Brattleboro, Vermont, Clark moved with his parents to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1819. He attended the public schools. He engaged ...

(1813–1896) *

Laurent Clerc Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (; 26 December 1785 – 18 July 1869) was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and dea ...

(1785–1869) *

Henry C. Deming Henry Champion Deming (May 23, 1815 – October 8, 1872) was a politician and writer who served as U.S. Representative from Connecticut, the mayor Hartford, the acting military mayor of New Orleans, and a member of the Connecticut House of Repr ...

(1815–1872) *

William W. Eaton William Wallace Eaton (October 11, 1816September 21, 1898) was a United States representative and United States senator from Connecticut. Biography Born in Tolland, Connecticut, he was educated in the common schools and by private instruction ...

(1816–1898) *

E. Hart Fenn Edward Hart Fenn (September 12, 1856 – February 23, 1939) was a United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Connecticut. Biography Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Fenn attended private schools, Hartford High School, ...

(1856–1939) *

Lydia Sigourney Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), ''née'' Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a ...

(1791–1865) *

Henry Clay Work Henry Clay Work (October 1, 1832 – June 8, 1884) was an American composer and songwriter known for the songs Kingdom Coming, Marching Through Georgia, The Ship That Never Returned and My Grandfather's Clock. Early life and education Work was ...

(1832–1884)

References

External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut Buildings and structures in Hartford, Connecticut Cemeteries in Hartford County, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Hartford, Connecticut Buildings and structures completed in 1844 Historic districts in Connecticut

Description and history

Notable burials

See also

References

External links