Grove Street CemeteryorGrove Street Burial Ground is a cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, that is surrounded by the Yale University campus. It was organized in 1796 as the New Haven Burying Ground and incorporated in October 1797 to replace the crowded burial ground on the New Haven Green. The first private, nonprofit cemetery in the world, it was one of the earliest burial grounds to have a planned layout, with plots permanently owned by individual families, a structured arrangement of ornamental plantings, and paved and named streets and avenues. By introducing ideas like permanent memorials and the sanctity of the deceased body, the cemetery became "a real turning point... a whole redefinition of how people viewed death and dying", according to historian Peter Dobkin Hall.[3] Many notable Yale and New Haven luminaries are buried in the Grove Street Cemetery, including 14 Yale presidents; nevertheless, it was not restricted to members of the upper class, and was open to all.[3]
For the first 160 years of permanent settlement, New Haven residents buried their dead on the New Haven Green, the town's central open space and churchyard. In 1794–95, a yellow fever plague swept the town. The increased demand for burial space prompted James Hillhouse, a businessman and U.S. Senator, to invite other prominent families in the town to establish a dedicated burial ground on farmland bordering the town.[5] In 1796, thirty-two families purchased a tract just north of Grove Street, the tract was enclosed by a wooden fence, which was prone to rotting and needed to be replaced frequently. At first consisting of 6 acres (0.024 km2), the cemetery was quickly subscribed and thereafter expanded to nearly 18 acres (0.073 km2).[citation needed]
In 1821, the monuments on the green were removed to the Grove Street Cemetery.[6]
Completed in 1845, the entrance on Grove Street is a brownstone Egyptian Revival gateway, designed by the New Haven architect Henry Austin with carving executed by sculptor Hezekiah Augur, both of whom are buried at the cemetery.[5] The style, popular in New England in that era, was chosen to reinforce the antiquity of the site.[7] The lintel of the gateway is inscribed "The Dead Shall Be Raised." The quotation is taken from 1 Corinthians 15.52: "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed." Supposedly, Yale President Arthur Twining Hadley said of the inscription, "They certainly will be, if Yale needs the property."[8]
In 1848–49, the perimeter of the cemetery was surrounded on three sides by an 8-foot (2.4 m) stone wall.
In 2008, Yale announced plans to construct two new residential colleges just north of the cemetery. In 2009, university administrators and affiliates suggested to the cemetery proprietors that an additional gate be constructed in the north section of the historic wall that surrounds the burial ground to permit pedestrians to walk through the cemetery from the main Yale campus to the planned new colleges. In addition, the proprietors considered a proposal brought forward by one proprietor that would replace portions of the stone sections of the wall bordering Prospect Street with iron fencing similar to that already running along the cemetery's southern border on Grove Street.[9] The proposal, withdrawn following a public meeting, included architectural and landscaping designs by Yale Architecture School Dean Robert A.M. Stern.[10]
Jehudi Ashmun (1794–1828), religious leader, and social reformer, agent of the African Colonization Society
Hezekiah Augur (1791–1858), wood carver, sculptor and inventor.
Henry Austin (1804–1891), architect, designed the gate of the cemetery, Yale's College Library (which became Dwight Hall), and several mansions on Hillhouse Avenue.
Alice Mabel Bacon (1858–1918), women educator (niece of Delia Bacon)
Delia Bacon (1811–1859), originator of the proposition that Francis Bacon wrote the plays attributed to Shakespeare
Leonard Bacon (1802–1881), clergyman and abolitionist (father of Alice Mabel Bacon and brother of Delia Bacon)
Edward Gaylord Bourne (1860–1908), historian and educator. Leader in the American Historical Association.
Phineas Bradley (1745–1797), soldier. Captain, commander of the artillery defending New Haven, July 5, 1779
William H. Brewer (1828–1910), scientist. Helped found the Yale Forestry School; co-founder, with Samuel William Johnson, also buried here, of the first U.S. Agricultural Experiment Station.
Monument to Glenn Miller, who formed the 418th Army Air Forces Band at Yale, and made New Haven his headquarters for concerts, parades and his radio show.
Chauncey Goodrich (1790–1860), Yale professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Charge.
Samuel William Johnson (1830–1909), Yale professor, co-founder of the Agricultural Experiment Station Movement with William H. Brewer (also buried here)
^ ab"Grove Street Cemetery". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
^ abPinnell, Patrick (1999). The Campus Guide: Yale University. Princeton University Press. pp. 108–09.
^Blake, Henry Taylor, Chronicles of New Haven Green from 1638 to 1862: A Series of Papers Read Before the New Haven Colony Historical Society, Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1898, p. 28
