Dead Center

Cemetery, burial ground, graveyard – what is the difference? Each refers to hallowed ground harboring our discarded human shells. As we go about our daily lives, these places of final repose may seem like fixtures in the landscape – pillars of the community that never change. But study any burying ground in depth and you will be struck by how transient such places are, how fleeting the afterlife can be.

In recent years, Hunter Research has specialized in the study of cemeteries – documenting them in their current state; remote-sensing them to delineate their boundaries and pinpoint graves; excavating them to make way for development; and making recommendations as to how best to preserve them for future generations. Yet, the physical fabric of all cemeteries – the memorials above ground and the bodily remains below – inexorably fades and its management is but a tale of short-term maintenance to stave off long-term decay.

Over the past two years, with funding support from the New Jersey Historic Trust, Hunter Research has completed preservation plans for two of downtown Trenton’s most venerable graveyards, both now closed for burying: the First Presbyterian Cemetery on East State Street and the non-sectarian Mercer Cemetery across from the Trenton train station. We have wrestled mightily with the challenge of how to protect and honor these cemeteries in the face of erosion by the weather and pollution, and damage from vandalism and neglect.

The First Presbyterian and Mercer Cemeteries are quite different. The First Presbyterian Cemetery was in use from the late 1720s until around 1900, and today sports roughly 200 grave markers and 16 monuments, although in excess of 500 interments are thought to have been made over the centuries. Many of the grave markers have been moved from their original locations. The Mercer Cemetery was established in the early 1840s, filled up rapidly in the later 19th century and burying continued intermittently into the 1970s. There are close to 3,000 grave markers and monuments and most are in their original locations.

The two preservation plans are founded on a comprehensive documentation exercise, including a conditions assessment of each grave marker and monument, that resulted in the creation of a cemetery-specific geographic information system (CGIS). The ultimate goal of each CGIS is to make the cemetery data accessible online in the form of a geodatabase and an interactive map. Each plan uses the CGIS as a basis for formulating prioritized treatment recommendations for the preservation and maintenance of the cemetery and for deriving rough cost estimates for their repair and restoration. The Mercer Cemetery study also includes a heritage tourism plan which considers the feasibility of incorporating the cemetery into Trenton’s plans for revitalizing the city around its history assets.

Both preservation plans are currently under client and New Jersey Historic Trust review, but will hopefully be accessible on our website within a few months. We acknowledge the considerable assistance of Schnabel Conservation, LLC and Horsley Archaeological Prospection, LLC in our study of the First Presbyterian Cemetery, and of Schnabel Conservation, LLC, Clarke Caton Hintz, Hargrove International, Inc. and Richard F. Veit, Ph.D. in our study of Mercer Cemetery.

Tilting at Windmills on the Maurice River

Today, wind power means arrays of giant, three-pronged turbines strung along hillsides or protruding from the ocean floor. Historically, along the eastern seaboard of North America, windmills were also not uncommon in the landscape, the power of air currents being used to grind grain grown in nearby farm fields.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, several windmills were once ranged along the banks of the Maurice River in Cumberland County, southern New Jersey, each one rotating on a large wooden post to capture in its sails the power of the prevailing nor’easter gales. None of these windmills survive today, although their former existence is witnessed on historic maps and in old documents and photographs.

Over the winter of 2021-22, a team of Hunter Research archaeologists, surveying the left bank of the Maurice River just below Leesburg in advance of a proposed commercial marine support facility for offshore wind power development, found evidence of a mid-18th-century peg, or sunken post, windmill. The remains were vestigial, to say the least, consisting of a sizeable hole, 8.5 feet deep and between 8 and 9 feet in diameter, containing the rotted imprint of a 2-foot-square timber post, along with other subsurface structural traces nearby. Associated artifacts, including a “Georgius II Rex” half penny dated 1735, along with documentary evidence, suggest that the windmill was most likely built and operated by members of the Peterson family, who were among the first Swedish settlers to take up residence in the Maurice River valley in the early 1700s.

The proposed development project will thankfully avoid what still remains of the windmill and its site will be marked with an interpretive sign.

Cultural Landscape Study Aids in Preservation of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Churchyard

In 1697, Andreas Rudman, a Lutheran minister recently arrived from Sweden to attend Swedish and Finnish settlers, wrote to the mother church in Uppsala reporting his impression of the state of its churches in the lower Delaware Valley. His assessment was blunt, “the churches are old and decrepit,” but Rudman resolved that “therefore we, with the help of the Lord, will exert ourselves to build new ones.” Three years later in 1700, Rudman presided over the consecration of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church, an impressive, Flemish-bond brick church that rivaled any then in existence in Philadelphia. More than 325 years after its founding, the church stands at the center of a complex that includes a burial ground, parsonage, sexton’s house and community hall. Gloria Dei is a center of Swedish culture and one of the oldest churchyards in the United States. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1942, and its grounds have been managed by the congregation in cooperation with the National Park Service since 1958.

 

In late 2022, Hunter Research completed a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church National Historic Site under contract with the National Park Service. Hunter Research’s historians, archaeologists and GIS specialists, with assistance from landscape architects at ETM Associates, worked closely with staff from Independence National Historical Park, the Olmsted Center for Landscape Architecture and Gloria Dei. The CLR was the first ever study based on primary source materials undertaken of the 1.5-acre churchyard and surrounding 3.3-acre park in South Philadelphia, less than a block from the Delaware River. The CLR assembled and presented research findings, existing conditions assessments and analyses of historical significance and integrity. The CLR identified historic landscape developmental periods and placed the site’s topography, building assemblages, spatial relationships, key vistas and views, circulation patterns and plantings into historical contexts.

 

The CLR data will be used to guide further development of appropriate landscape treatments in accordance with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. These treatments may in the future address effective vegetation management, conservation of significant landscape features, improved public access and accessibility, and updated interpretation for the benefit of park visitors. The CLR provides park professionals with the information necessary to make informed decisions regarding management and interpretation of Gloria Dei and will ultimately lead to strategies to improve the condition, appearance and public appreciation of the landscape.