Old North burial ground in Providence

On Wednesday, 12 December I paid my second visit to the Old North Burial Ground in Providence, Rhode Island. (My first visit was several years back, and all I recall is the Elks monument.) As you can see from the attached photo it certainly has to be one of the oldest working cemeteries in New England. (Prior to 1700 the folks of Providence buried their loved ones on their own property.)

This is the final resting place of many of the great, near great and generally unknown people who help to make Providence a major industrial center. Like Brown family, as in the university and not the football team.

If you are looking for someone in particular or even just planning a visit to the cemetery, I urge you to click here right now. Doing so will take you to one of the few websites on the Old North Burying Ground, where you can find out all the details on how to locate someone in the cemetery. Another good website is sponsored by the Bucklin Society. Click here to surf over and check out their handy links. The cemetery office, open on weekdays only, can provide you with a a good map of the cemetery, with the street names clearly marked and some of the more well-known burials and monuments located as well.

(photo: part of the veterans' lot, with a monument to the veterans of the Spanish-American War in the background.)

Oh and way at the very "back" of the cemetery, just past the Potter's field area, you'll find a tiny bit of local history. Wedged in between I-95 on one side and the cemetery on the other is a small but very old portion of the Blackstone Canal, one of the chief watercourses here in the 19th century.