Tour of Ancient Burial Ground Offered
Old Saybrook’s ancient burial ground, better known as Cypress Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Connecticut and the site for a tour of the art, architecture, and final resting places for both the town’s most prominent personalities as well as less well-known individuals.
Sponsored by the Old Saybrook Historical Society, the tour will be held, light rain or shine, on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. at the cemetery, which is near the corner of College and Fenwick Streets in Old Saybrook. There is a $5 charge. Children under 16 accompanied by a parent or guardian are admitted free.
The tour will include visits to the burial site of Harry Gilbert Faulk, a 20 year-old youngster who was the only Saybrook resident killed in action in World War I. Further along is Anna Louise James, the legendary proprietor of James Pharmacy and the first African-American female pharmacist in Connecticut.
Here, too, will be found the Lynde family, early owners of a large tract of land known today as the Borough of Fenwick and Lynde Point and the burial sites of slaves Rose and Phyllis Jackson and Frank Ransom, and the likely site of Native American graves.
There will also be a visit to perhaps the most notable grave at Cypress, and thought to be the oldest memorial to a woman in Connecticut, is the burial site of Lady Fenwick.
Old Saybrook Historical Society board of trustee member Torrance Downes, who is also on the Cypress Cemetery board, will lead the tour. He will be assisted by high school students who will share information about some of the individuals buried in Cypress.
The tour has become a popular annual event and normally lasts an hour to an hour and a half. For further information, email the Old Saybrook Historical Society at contact@saybrookhistory.org or call 860-395-1635.