Old Burying Ground – Condition Assessment Report; Ground Penetrating Radar Survey
Location: 0 Cemetery Lane (off Mill Road)
Applicant: Planning Department, Historical Commission & DPW
Allocation: $25,000; $21,725
Year/Article: April 2022, A33; April 2023/A39
In April 2022, Town Meeting approved $25,000 requested by the Planning Department and the Historical Commission to conduct a Conditions Assessment Report for the historically significant Old Burying Ground, also known as the First Burying Ground or the Old Town Cemetery. The Condition Assessment Report will document the condition of the gravestones and monuments and develop a detailed description of preservation procedures, materials, and costs required to restore and preserve them. The Old Burying Ground is in the Falmouth Village Green Historic District, however, in this Historic District’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it is mentioned that the cemetery is individually eligible for listing on the National Register. The Old Burying Ground is included as a discontiguous part of the Village Green Historic District because it was the center of the original town settlement where the town’s first two meetinghouses, first cemetery, as well as the training ground for the militia were located. According to the National Register listing for the Village Green Historic District, the Old Burying Ground was laid out in 1677. There are approximately 775 gravestones, dating from 1705 to 1989, with the majority dated between 1775 and 1850. Many of the founders of Falmouth are buried in the Old Burying Ground including members of the following well-known families: Bourne, Butler, Crowell, Davis, Dillingham, Dimmick, Hatch, Jenkins, Lawrence, Nye, Palmer, Parker, and Swift. The Old Burying Ground is individually listed on the State Register of Historic Places.
Many of the gravestones in the cemetery are damaged or broken and there has been a lack of town funding to properly care for the markers as well as the grounds. Through the years, various volunteers, including the Friends of Falmouth Cemeteries, donors, and the Department of Public Works have worked to clean, reset, and repair many of the stones, but as time goes on more stones are in need of repair. There have also been a number of efforts over the years to catalog, photograph, and map the gravestones in the cemetery including in 1903 by Rev. Henry Herbert Smythe, rector of St. Barnabas Church and first president of the Falmouth Historical Society, in 1993 by Ann Sears, former member of the Falmouth Historical Commission and Local Planning Committee, and in 2003 by the Town of Falmouth with its preservation consultant Fannin-Lehner who also made several gravestone repairs.
The CP Funding for this project is an initial phase to understand the existing conditions, needs, and costs to begin a preservation program for the gravestones. Future phases will include restoration work on the gravestones and the entire property in order to manage, maintain, and preserve the Old Burying Ground as a historical landmark as well as sacred burial ground.
April 2023 Town Meeting approved funding for a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey that will ensure all markers are found prior to any gravestone marker restoration work commencing.