Skip to main content

Gravesite Study May Lead to National Register Status

Thu, 07/29/2021 - 08:11
East Hampton Town's surviving burying grounds, cemeteries, and gravesites leave unique records of the dead that are characteristic of their time.
Durell Godfrey

East Hampton Town has gotten a $5,600 grant from the Preservation League of New York State to fund a cultural resource survey of cemeteries. 

The town's surviving burying grounds, cemeteries, and gravesites preserve monuments that memorialize members of the community, leaving unique records of the dead that are characteristic of their time. Collectively, the sites are a group of historical landscapes that preserve headstones as well as walls and fences, plantings, and pathways that survive largely intact from the 18th and 19th centuries. 

The town will hire the Burying Ground Preservation Group to conduct a survey to document historical burying grounds, cemeteries, and gravesites, including Native American burial grounds, with the goal of listing all cemeteries of historical significance within the town on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The multiple property documentation form for these historically and culturally significant sites will enable the town to prioritize future restoration work, according to a statement issued from Town Hall on Tuesday. "We are pleased and grateful to receive this Preserve New York grant to help us achieve full protection of our historic gravesites and burying grounds, which are such an important historic cultural resource," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said in the statement.

The Preserve New York program is a partnership between the New York State Council on the Arts and the Preservation League. The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has provided additional money to support nonprofit projects in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Villages

Volunteers Take Up Invasives War at Morton

Most people go to the Elizabeth Morton Wildlife Refuge in Noyac, part of the National Wildlife Refuge system, to feed the friendly birds. On Saturday, however, 15 people showed up instead to rip invasive plants out of the ground.

Apr 24, 2025

Item of the Week: Wild Times at Jungle Pete’s

A highlight among Springs landmarks, here is a storied eatery and watering hole that served countless of the hamlet’s residents, including the Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.

Apr 24, 2025

The Sweet Smell of Nostalgia at Sagaponack General

Stepping into the new Sagaponack General Store, which reopened yesterday after being closed since 2020, is a sweet experience, and not just because there’s a soft-serve ice cream station on the left and what promises to be the biggest penny candy selection on the South Fork on your right, but because it’s like seeing an old friend who, after some struggle, made it big. Really, really big.

Apr 17, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.