With a congregation founded in 1636, the Center Church is the fourth meeting house to reside on its current location with the present church built in 1807. The Center Church has always maintained itself as not just a religious icon of the city, but as a cultural one as well. Today, there are concerts and important city events, such as First Night, which are held on the grounds of the church. Also on the site of the church is Hartford's oldest cemetery, the Ancient Burial Ground, where its citizens were interred from 1640 to 1802. "Our Church is 375 years old; our thinking is not" is the motto of the 375 year-old house of worship and is one of the most progressive congregations in the state.
Website: ancientburyingground.com
Phone: (860) 337-1640
Cross Streets: Near the intersection of Gold St and Lewis St
60 Gold St Hartford, CT 06103 ·444.25 mi
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Amenities
- Family friendly
- Accessible
Reviews
tripadvisor
Like so many historic, colonial New England communities, Hartford has a 17th and 18th century cemetery in the middle of its downtown. Here you not only have the traditional slate tombstones but brownstone as well. Many of the graves do go back to the 1600s but most are the 1700's and include many famous people in Connecticut history including Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford and Connecticut, most of the colonial Governors like Joseph Talcott the namesake of Talcott State Park where we hiked and important citizens like Jeremiah Wadsworth who endowed the first public art museum which is in Hartford just across the street from the cemetery. There is a statue of Samuel Stone, co-founder of Hartford, just outside the cemetery but I am not sure if he is also buried there. In all it is something you have to see in Hartford.
MoreI have several ancestors buried here. This cemetery use to have over 6000 people buried here, but as I was told, most were covered by roads and construction making Hartford a more modern city. Today there are less than 300 headstones. The Hartford Public Library, third floor as a record of the inscriptions of the headstones taken around 1890 or so. I was able to get the inscriptions of my ancestors headstones which are no longer visible on their headstones. A great resource and very helpful staff.
MoreWe thought this was pretty cool, but we did go at the very end of October and the leaves were beautiful in the cemetery. So that lended to the ambiance.
MoreThe cemetery is a very interesting place. I was put off by the group of people smoking pot surrounding the cemetery.I was surprised to find a list of the people that are buried here and where they are located. Unfortunately many of the headstones on the list are missing.
MoreCemetery was very nice. You can tell at some time in the far past some of the headstones have been replaced but the wording on each appear to be legit. It's laid out nicely and was easy to walk around. For the age of the graves and the cemetery itself, it was very easy to maneuver and read.
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