Grove Street Cemetery

The Grove Street Cemetery was the first charted burial ground in the country. The original burial ground filled after the yellow fever epidemics of 1794 and 1795, so a new cemetery was planned for the edge of town. The first person buried in the Grove Street location was Martha Townsend in 1797. The cemetery is consider an urban cemetery and is built in a geometric pattern that is similar to the nine square pattern of the city. The paths of the cemetery were designed to give horse carriages easy access and today, the paths serve the same purpose for automobiles. There are a variety of well-known names gracing the headstones in the cemetery including Eli Whitney, Roger Sherman, Walter Camp, Mary A. Goodman, Roger Sherman Baldwin, O.C. Marsh, Josiah Willard Gibbs, Jr., Lyman Beecher and Jedidiah Morse. The cemetery offers an educational program, arranged by a charitable group who felt it important to help people understand the history of Grove Street. This groups seeks to " preserve a monument of the moral sentiments, the good taste and the liberality of the present generation." The cemetery is sometimes called the Westminster of Yale and features several historic structures in the nearby area. It is one of 60 National Historic Landmarks in the state and the ninth in New Haven.