Edition: U.S. / Global

In Many Old Cemeteries There Is a World of Art

Published: November 21, 1999

Behold my friend as you pass by

As you are now, so once was I

As I am now so you must be

Prepare for death and follow me

-- Epitaph in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground, on the gravestone of Roderic Lawrence, a Yale College graduate who died at 27 on May 2, 1783.

THEY are scenic and restful (no pun intended) places, loaded with art and history and gaining in popularity every livelong (pun intended) day.

Graveyards, says William Hosley, director of the state's Antiquarian and Landmarks Society, are much more than places where people are buried. They are classrooms for those studying their cultures. They are outdoor art museums. And they are tourist attractions.

He acknowledges that a new interest in old graveyards is not limited to Connecticut, but is a national trend. He insists, however, that when it comes to burial places, Connecticut is second to none.

''In no state in the Union can you learn more about history through graveyards than Connecticut,'' he said. ''They're a rich geological resource because of our brownstone quarries and rich in sculpture and folk art, just totally the richest cultural asset we have. I've been passionate about cemeteries for 25 years and call them outdoor museums that provide one-stop shopping for art, history and nature, at an affordable price.'' That means free.

For the last few years, Mr. Hosley's organization has been conducting what are known as Connecticut heritage discovery tours around the state. ''We go into communities and look at every available asset they have for historical tours,'' he said. Usually, a graveyard is listed as an asset, he adds.

Some communities, including Wethersfield, East Hartford and Norwich, hold walking tours of cemeteries, or turn out brochures so visitors can make their own way around.

Some enthusiasts enjoy the grandeur of Victorian-era cemeteries, with their elaborate grounds and statuary. Others prefer Colonial cemeteries, with their crude gravestones of brownstone, schist or slate, featuringcarvings of winged skulls and Puritan sentiments like ''Death is a debt to Nature due, Which I have paied & so must you.''

Here is a sampling of four cemeteries, all open to visitors, as they should be, all fascinating in their own ways.

Ancient Burying Ground

This four-acre plot at Main and Gold Streets, smack in the center of downtown Hartford, is aptly named. It dates to five years after the founding of the city in 1635 and is where most of its residents were buried until about 1815, when another city cemetery, the Old North Burying Ground, was created.

In an 1895 history of the Ancient Burying Ground, it was estimated that 6,000 people had been buried there, an awesome figure for so small a graveyard.

Today, 425 grave markers remain. A combination of weather and neglect, or at least indifference, were responsible for the loss of many others. In recent years, however, a concerted effort, represented by the Ancient Burying Ground Association, created in the mid-1980's, has led to the restoration of many of the stones, using new materials, and to much better maintenance.

One charming aspect of this old graveyard is that for decades it has served as sort of a lunchroom for many downtown office workers, particularly those from the Travelers Insurance Company. They bring box lunches and sit around, talking and eating, surrounded by mementos of the early history of Hartford, and an enduring mystery. Where is the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford, buried?

In 1635, Hooker led members of his Puritan congregation at Newtown, Mass., (now Cambridge), through the wilderness to form the settlement that became Hartford, and he has been regarded since as the father of the city. It is presumed that he was buried in the Ancient Burying Ground after he died in 1647 because there was no other graveyard in the city. But no one knows where.

There is also the possibility he is not there at all. He died while on a visit to a daughter's house in the little settlement of Farmington. His body may still be in that town.

Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground is open each day until the sun goes down.

Cedar Hill Cemetery

This cemetery in the South End of Hartford, near the Wethersfield town line, is a prime example of what came to be known in the last century as a ''rural'' cemetery,'' a beautiful and serene country location, a radical departure from simple colonial burial places and crowded city cemeteries

Created in 1864, the cemetery is 270 acres of rolling terrain, manmade ponds, woodlands of 100 species of trees, all as backdrops for some of the most striking examples of funereal art in America.

When Cedar Hill came into being, Hartford was one of the richest cities in the country and Cedar Hill became the place where most of its movers and shakers would eventually be taken, some transferred from less-grand, cemeteries.

Here are buried such familiar names as Samuel Colt, the gun manufacturer; J. P. Morgan, the financier; Henry Barnard, who was the first United States commissioner of education; Thomas Gallaudet, who founded the American School for the deaf; Isabella Beecher Hooker, who was a 19th-century leader of the women's movement and, incidentally, a sister of the author Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Horace Wells, a Hartford dentist who proved that nitrous oxide could be used as an anesthetic but was nonetheless called a fake and charlatan and ultimately killed himself.