Church St. Cemetery Restoration

Annie Castelnovo-Mcmullen is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Church Street Cemetery Headstone Restoration

PHASE II: Ground Penetrating Radar & 3-D Scanning

We are raising funds in order to continue with the next phase in our quest to unearth buried headstones from a long forgotten 19th century cemetery in Waltham, Massachusetts. Established in 1830, the original Church Street Cemetery was the final resting place for approximately 1300 Irish Catholic immigrants, many of whom had fled the potato famine of the 1840's, who died between 1830 and 1922.

The existence of the cemetery was discovered while we were engaged in genealogical research. The obituary of one ancestor, who died a tragic death in 1878, noted his burial in the Church Street Cemetery in Waltham, MA. Referring to photographs of the original cemetery and its location on a 19th century map led to further investigation of the site which turned up only a row of houses and a school. Further research would reveal the cemetery land had been sold by the Archdiocese to the city of Waltham in 1947 for the construction of a school. The remains of 1300 individuals along with their headstones would be disinterred and reburied at nearby Calvary Cemetery in Waltham. The approximately 400 headstones would be laid flush with the ground at the time of reburial.

Investigation of the area at Calvary Cemetery where the remains had been reinterred revealed a large grassy area. On closer examination, it was evident the headstones, over the years, had sunk into the ground now being covered over by grass and several inches of earth.

Through painstaking work by 25 volunteers we have been able to uncover 161 headstones out of an estimated 300 to 400 which may lie at a deeper depth than we have manually been able to probe.

The next phase for which we are now seeking funding is to proceed with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and 3-D scanning of the area which will be performed by an expert who specializes in historic cemetery projects. This technology is fairly expensive due to its technical nature, however, GPR will allow us to determine the perimeters of the entire gravesite enabling us to map the location of every single grave and will allow us to determine the location and depth of additional headstones we will need to unearth. We have identified a GPR expert who is confident additional headstones can be located.

This project is important, not only to honor the memory of the deceased, but also to identify the individuals buried in the original Church Street Cemetery as there is no such record in existence. Many of the headstones document not only the names of the individuals, but in many cases the name of their native parish and county - essential information for anyone researching their Irish ancestry.