Old Town Cemetery (Newburgh, New York)

Last updated

Old Town Cemetery and Palatine Church Site
Old Town Cemetery, Newburgh, NY.jpg
The Robinson Mausoleum at the cemetery, possibly designed by Alexander Jackson Davis [1]
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationGrand St., Newburgh, NY
Coordinates 41°30′27″N74°0′36″W / 41.50750°N 74.01000°W / 41.50750; -74.01000
Built1713
NRHP reference No. 00000746 [2]
Added to NRHPJune 30, 2000

The Old Town Cemetery is located in the city of Newburgh, New York, behind Calvary Presbyterian Church on South Street. It was established in 1713 by Palatine German refugees from the Rhineland-Palatinate who were transported from England in 1710 and settled on the site of the present city of Newburgh. The cemetery is within a section of the city known as the Glebe, a 500-acre (2 km2) grant made by Queen Anne to provide for a schoolmaster and clergyman for these German families. [1] A church built by the Palatines was located on the western edge of the site, on what is now Liberty Street. As the Old Town Cemetery and Palatine Church Site, it was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. [2] It is also a contributing element in the larger Montgomery-Grand-Liberty Streets Historic District. [3]

There are an estimated 1,700 burials in the cemetery, although there may at one time have been 2,500. Thirteen hundred headstones survive today; the earliest date of death still legible is 1759. Among the noteworthy persons are congressmen Jonathan Fisk and Thomas McKissock. [1]

Robinson Mausoleum DETAIL OF TOMB ENTRANCE, ENTABLATURE WITH WINGED SOLAR DISC SUPPORTED BY REED COLUMNS - Egyptian-Style Tomb, Calvary Cemetery, Newburgh, Orange County, NY HABS NY,36-NEWB,23-A-3.tif
Robinson Mausoleum

The mausoleum of ship Capt. Henry Robinson, his wife Ann Buchan Robinson, and their two daughters, Sarah Robinson and Mary Robinson Benkard is architecturally distinctive. It was built in 1853, possibly by Alexander Jackson Davis, whose most notable work in Newburgh, the Dutch Reformed Church, stands a few blocks away. It is believed to be the only Egyptian Revival tomb to feature both a mastaba and a pyramid. It was overgrown and fell into disrepair until a 1999 restoration. [4]

An interesting memorial marker here is the one for Archibald Wiseman and two of his young children by his wife, Susan Clyde, located at gravesite 1-140. Somewhat of a mystery is the inscription on the marker that reports that he died at sea on May 9, 1853. His widow Susan remarried in 1860 to a James McCord, a leather tanner and apparently unrelated to the McCord family of brush manufacturers in Newburgh, and she and McCord are last recorded in the 1880 Census at the home of her son, David Clyde Wiseman (who suffered from 'consumption') and his daughter Mary, who married in about 1869. Mary was the only daughter of James McCord by an earlier marriage. Susan and James' later fate after 1880 is unknown as of June 2011.

In 1803 New York amended the law governing the Glebe, and later an Old Town Cemetery Commission was created by the city. It consists of five members, three of them serving ex officio : the city's mayor, the local superintendent of schools and the pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church. The other two members are appointed by the city council. Currently those are John McCormick and Gerardo Sanchez, whose company restored the Robinson Mausoleum. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvary Cemetery (Los Angeles)</span> Cemetery located in California, U.S.

Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles runs in the community of East Los Angeles, California. It is also called "New Calvary Cemetery" because it succeeded the original Calvary Cemetery, over which Cathedral High School was built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newburgh (town), New York</span> Town in New York, United States

Newburgh is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. It forms part of the Poughkeepsie—Newburgh—Middletown metropolitan area, which is a part of the New York megacity, and is a suburban satellite of the urbanized city of Newburgh. The city of Newburgh was a part of the town prior to 1865. New York Stewart International Airport is partially located within the township, and much of the land into which it could have been expanded has been turned into Stewart State Forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newburgh, New York</span> City on west side of Hudson River in U.S. state of New York

Newburgh is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located 60 miles (97 km) north of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) south of Albany on the Hudson River within the Hudson Valley Area, the city of Newburgh is located near Stewart International Airport, one of the primary airports for Downstate New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blandford Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Virginia, United States

Blandford Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in Petersburg, Virginia. Although in recent years it has attained some notoriety for its large collection of more than 30,000 Confederate graves, it contains remains of people of all classes and races as well as veterans of every American war. It holds the largest mass grave of 30,000 Confederates killed in the Siege of Petersburg (1864–65) and other battles during the American Civil War. Although only 3,700 names of the interred are known, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, in part through the efforts of Charlotte Irving, first president of the Historic Blandford Cemetery Foundation. In addition to this cemetery's historic African American section discussed below, it is located adjacent to the People's Memorial Cemetery, a historic African-American cemetery, and small cemeteries containing additional dead from the lengthy Siege of Petersburg and Battle of the Crater in 1864.

Robert Cary Long Jr. (1810–1849) was the son of a late 18th Century - early 19th Century famous architect Robert Cary Long Sr. of Baltimore, Maryland and was himself a well-known 19th Century architect. Like his father, Cary was based in Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Scotch Church</span> Historic church in Oregon, United States

The Old Scotch Church, also known as the Tualatin Plains Presbyterian Church, is a church and national historic site located in an unincorporated part of Washington County, Oregon, near Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. The church dates to 1873 while the church structure with an eight-sided steeple dates to 1878. A cemetery on the church grounds holds the graves of church members and local pioneer settlers of the Tualatin Plains, including Joseph Meek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Clarke Withers</span> American architect

Frederick Clarke Withers was an English architect in America, especially renowned for his Gothic Revival ecclesiastical designs. For portions of his professional career, he partnered with fellow immigrant Calvert Vaux; both worked in the office of Andrew Jackson Downing in Newburgh, New York, where they began their careers following Downing's accidental death. Withers greatly participated in the introduction of the High Victorian Gothic style to the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enid Cemetery</span> United States historic place in Oklahoma

The Enid Cemetery is a cemetery in Enid, Oklahoma. Together with the Calvary Catholic Cemetery, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996. Opened in the 1890s, the two cemeteries were designed in the rural cemetery style. Only a portion of the Enid Cemetery contributes to the historical significance: the Original (1898), First (1918), Second (1920), and Evergreen (1923) additions. Together these encompass a 967 by 1,318-foot (402 m) area historical section.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston Presbyterian Church Cemetery</span> Historic cemetery in Horry County, South Carolina, US

Kingston Presbyterian Church Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at Conway in Horry County, South Carolina. It contains fine examples of Victorian-era funerary art, especially those in the Beaty family plot. Portions of the cemetery site were first the old Kingston "burying ground", established about 1737, and burials continued until 1909. It is co-located with the Kingston Presbyterian Church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian Burying Ground</span>

The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Cemetery Historic District</span> Historic district in Iowa, United States

Sharon Cemetery Historic District is located in rural Harrison Township, Lee County, Iowa, United States near the town of Farmington. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. At the time of its nomination the historic district included four contributing buildings, one contributing site, eight contributing structures, and one contributing object.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Stone Church (Kingwood Township, New Jersey)</span> Historic church in New Jersey, United States

The Old Stone Church is a historic sandstone church located in Kingwood Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. It was built in 1837 and is now owned by the First Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hunterdon County. The church, described using its historic name, Old Stone Presbyterian Church in Kingwood, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 2018 for its significance in architecture. The earlier church located here was a smaller stone building built in 1755, called the Old Stone Meetinghouse. The stones from this church were probably used to build the current one. The Kingwood congregation was established in 1728 and grew during the First Great Awakening, with Gilbert Tennent and George Whitefield preaching here in 1739.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martineztown-Santa Barbara</span> Neighborhood of Albuquerque

Martineztown-Santa Barbara is a neighborhood in central Albuquerque, New Mexico, immediately northeast of Downtown. Originating as a small farming village in the 1850s, it is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods and retains a distinct character, with winding streets, irregular lots, and adobe vernacular buildings reminiscent of other old Hispanic communities in northern New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockhill Agricultural Historic District</span> Historic district in New Jersey, United States

The Rockhill Agricultural Historic District is a 1,075-acre (435 ha) historic district located north of Pittstown along County Route 513 in a southern triangular portion of Union Township in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. A small part of the district extends into Franklin Township. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 1984, for its significance in agriculture during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Carroll City-Mount Olivet Cemetery is a historic site located in Carroll, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evergreen Cemetery (Bisbee, Arizona)</span> United States historic place

Evergreen Cemetery is a cemetery in Bisbee, Arizona, located in the Lowell area of the city, along old U.S. Highway 80. It is also known as the Lowell Cemetery. It was officially established in May 1912, and contains over 10,000 graves, being the main cemetery for the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 7, 2005.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Old Town Cemetery at Calvary Presbyterian Church". February 26, 2006. Retrieved August 9, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. John A. Bonafide (February 2000). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Old Town Cemetery and Palatine Church Site". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . Retrieved September 23, 2011.See also: "Accompanying 12 photos".
  4. "The Restoration of the Robinson Mausoleum". February 26, 2004. Retrieved August 9, 2007.