Even though it is not yet Halloween season, it is still a good time to discover some of the interesting burial places in Rye, including several private ones.
The most notable of those is the Jay Family Cemetery, located on the grounds next to the Jay Heritage Center, where John Jay, the first U.S. chief justice, is buried.
The old Milton Cemetery, near the Knapp House on Milton Road, is also well worth a visit, especially as it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In his “History of Rye” (published in 1871), Charles W. Baird included a chapter on Rye cemeteries that begins: “The visitor on his way to our Beach may notice at the turn of the road above Milton, the little burying-ground by Blind Brook; not as differing from other country grave-yards in its aspect of seclusion and neglect, but for the quiet beauty of the scene in which it lies.”
For more than 200 years, Americans followed the European tradition of using small country and church graveyards for burials, but many, like the Milton Cemetery, became neglected. Then in 1831 a new concept of cemetery use and design began with the opening of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its large-scale use of trees, shrubs and other landscaping became the model for numerous other cemeteries in the U.S., including Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
On a smaller scale, Rye’s own Greenwood Union Cemetery shows the influence of the naturalistic or “rural” cemetery movement that started with Mount Auburn. Eventually, the cost of maintaining landscaped grounds led many cemeteries to adopt simpler “lawn” or “memorial park” designs, which can be seen in the newer sections of Greenwood Union.
Greenwood was established in 1837 when two residents, James Barker and David Brooks, gave three acres of land along North Street to Christ’s Church in Rye. Between 1855 and 1864, the Methodist Episcopal Church of Rye acquired 14 more contiguous acres.
In 1902, management of those older burial grounds was transferred to a Rural Cemetery Corporation, which, according to its website, announced in 1913 that: “Our extensive plans of 1902 are rounded out…Open land made gently rolling grass knolls…Shrubbery beds and trees planted for landscaping and forestation.” As a result, the remains of many members of the Purdy family were moved from their burial ground near the Milton Cemetery and reinterred in Greenwood.
Today, Greenwood is a non-sectarian and non-profit corporation run by an independent board of trustees. It covers about 54 acres, of which 35 acres are in Rye with the balance in Harrison. If you visit Greenwood, look for the map of the cemetery that is posted outside the small office near the main entrance.
Along South Avenue, you will find the entrance to Rye’s African American Cemetery. It was established in 1860 when the Halstead family donated the land to the Town of Rye to be used as a free burial ground for African Americans. There are an estimated 300 people buried at the cemetery, although many of them do not have headstones or formal markers.
After the last burial in 1964, the cemetery was neglected for the next 20 years. 1986, it was rededicated after an effort of more than two years to restore it, and the Town of Rye has since placed a Westchester County Tricentennial Historic Plaque at the location. Since 2010, the non-profit group, Friends of the Rye African American Cemetery, has led the restoration and preservation efforts of the cemetery.
