Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery

The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair of cemeteries was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a single listing in 1974.[1]

Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery
LocationNewport, Rhode Island
Area31 acres (13 ha)
Built1640
Architectural styleBeaux Arts, Romanesque
NRHP reference No.74000044[1]
Added to NRHPMay 1, 1974

History

The Common Burial Ground was established in 1640 on land given to city of Newport by John Clarke.[2] It features what is probably the largest number of colonial era headstones in a single cemetery, including the largest number of colonial African American headstones in the United States. The predominantly African-American northern section of the cemetery is commonly referred to by local African-Americans as "God's Little Acre".

The Island Cemetery was established by the city in 1836, and transferred to the private Island Cemetery Corporation in 1848.[2] Many members of Newport's most prominent families have been buried there over the years. Notable people buried there include Medal of Honor recipient Hazard Stevens, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, Commodore Matthew C. Perry and financier August Belmont.

In 2016, three gravestones were discovered which had been lost for years. One stone, found in Pennsylvania, was a 12 x 24 marker for a 1-year-old child. The others were 1835 stones for a Newport woman, which were found in a Newport yard during a renovation. The recovered stones were reset in the Common Burying Ground in 2016 by the Newport Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission.[3]

Notable burials

Prominent people buried in the Common Burial Ground

Prominent people buried in the Island Cemetery

Images

Common Burial Ground

Island Cemetery

See also
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery" (PDF). Rhode Island Preservation. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  3. "Centuries-old gravestones found, returned to cemetery". 7 News Boston. Sunbeam Television Corp. 26 October 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.

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