What: Crypt at the New Haven Green
Where: Center Church on the Green, New Haven, CT (map)
When: April-October – Thursdays and Saturdays: 11:00AM-1:00PM.
Admission: Free (Donations Welcomed)
Age Group: All ages
If you live in Connecticut, chances are that you’ve walked across the New Haven Green at least once before in your life. It may be hard to believe, but buried just six feet below the surface are the remains of somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people.
Between 1638 and 1796, the New Haven Green, then known as “the marketplace”, was a commonly used burial ground for the colony’s residents. After about 150 years of use, the grounds started to become much too cluttered with gravestones and a new burial ground had to be established. The last burial took place in 1821, and the practice was permanently abolished. In the mid-1800′s a beautification project placed several feet of dirt over the graves, hiding nearly all evidence of the thousands of people buried there.
The Green has been the home to several meetinghouses and churches since it’s earliest days. Currently there are three 17th century churches lined up in the center along Temple Street. The one in the middle, known as the Center Church on the Green, is the fourth meetinghouse of the First Society.
In 1812 when the building was being planned they ran into a major problem – the location was right in the middle of the old burial ground and they did not want to disturb the graves of some of New Haven’s most historical figures. The solution was to elevate the church slightly, and including a basement that would serve as a crypt. This way the graves could remain entirely untouched, and family members could still come to visit.
The crypt is open to the public, and the gravestones remain in very good condition. Several historically important people are buried there, including Reverend James Pierpont – the founder of Yale University, Benedict Arnold’s wife, President Rutherford B. Hayes’ family, and Theophilus Eaton, one of New Haven’s co-founders and Governor. Buried near the church’s foundation is John Dixwell, one of the three regicide judges who heroically tried and condemned King Charles I to death, which automatically earned him his own death sentence from the crown. He escaped punishment by fleeing to New Haven, where he hid in a cave on West Rock for some time and then later changed his name. His grave simply reads J.D. because his relatives feared that if the British ever found out he was buried there they would exhume his remains, viciously tear them up, and display them on staves for the public to view.
If you have any interest in local history you should definitely give the Center Church and crypt a visit. It’s open to the public from April – October on Thursdays & Saturdays from 11:00AM-1:00PM, and by appointment during the winter months.
I just went there for the first time last week and I loved it. A tour guide gave us some of the church’s history, a little about it’s architecture, and took us around the crypt grave by grave to tell us about the people buried there.
For pictures and more information visit their website at NewHavenCenterChurch.org.
Note: This post was originally written for my personal blog and posted as “Underneath the New Haven Green” in February of 2007.
Other things you might enjoy:Tags: All Ages, Architecture, Class Trips, Haunted Places, Historic Locations, Historical Sites, New Haven, New Haven County, Spooky Places
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