Twilight Tour of the Old Burying Ground

Tonight I attended the Wakefield Historical Society's Twilight Tour of the Old Burying Ground. It had rained yesterday and some of today so I wasn't even sure the event would happen. It turned out to be warmer and drier than expected this evening.

We started out by the First Congregational Church by the lake and proceeded down to this structure. It was used centuries ago for holding bodies during the wintertime. If the ground was frozen, the graves could not be dug. Consider it a weigh station until Spring. It is covered with moss now but still quite an interesting building.

Even after the wind and rain of the past few days, we still had some pretty foliage to view.

 

Gravestones and foliage, a perfect pre-Halloween evening.

Some of the stones were from the 1600's.

 

When darkness arrived, we had to use flashlights to see the faded writing on the gravestones.

The fallen leaves gave the burying ground an eerie effect.

I know this is a terrible photo. This gravestone was under the tree and then the tree grew over and around it. The name of the person buried in the grave? Underwood and yes, it is in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

View of the church from the graveyard.

Our guide, Nancy, was well versed in the history of Wakefield and it's residents and of course, the stories of those buried in the Old Burying Yard and Puritan gravestone art.

This stone was the most ornate at the graveyard.

This event was free to the public and I was happy to see so many in attendance. I will have to put this on my to do list for next Fall.