Join us at Old Center Cemetery in Suffield, CT on Thursday July 2nd, 2026!
All 48StateTour! events are free & open to the public
Old Center Cemetery
36 Mountain Road Suffield, CT 06078
7/02/2026 9am-3pm
We’re excited to welcome Christoph Henning to perform a live stone carving demo around 11:30am!
Find A Grave
The Suffield Observer - The Old Center Cemetery
48StateTour Facebook Event
Location Details (keep scrolling for Google maps)
Local contact info for any questions: Coming soon
Parking: Coming soon
Cemetery Background/Info
Old Center Cemetery has 20 gravestones attributed to the "Bat Carver"; Batterson, Griswold, Loomis, and Newell are some of the more prominent carvers in the cemetery. There are confirmed 31 Revolutionary War veterans and another 16 still under research. There are many tall brownstone obelisks. There's a wonderful replica of Suffield's first meeting house that is a memorial for a local Reverend Ruggles.
The DAR (with permission) has been working for the last 3 years to document, photograph, GPS, and clean the Rev. War veteran's gravestones and many others. The Chapter has designed and created a flag to be placed on each Rev. War veteran's burial location in commemoration of America 250th.
Suffield Academy's American Studies students with instructor Bill Sullivan have spent time researching and have started to get involved with cleaning and hopefully could start up-righting many of the fallen stones.
The Suffield Historical Society has hosted tours with actors portraying some interred Suffield residents so their stories could be shared. The DAR chapter has helped to put on these events.
Should we be so lucky as to be selected, the DAR chapter in collaboration with the First School Society (they own and oversee the cemetery) and the Suffield Historical Society would be able to accommodate your requirements. There is street parking, a small church lot, and a large Academy lot that could be used. Many restaurants are within walking distance. There's a lovely town green nearby. There will be access to water and a bathroom.
Ideally, the Academy students would be in attendance though the school closes for the summer break on May 22. I spoke to your Courtney and she stated your program starts after Memorial Day. We might be able to get some local/commuter students to attend if it's after that date.
Old Center has many marble gravestones, a lot of sandstone ones, and then of course, granite stones for the more modern markers. The majority are marble and sandstone. Like many old cemeteries, a lot are leaning, fallen, and/or broken. Some marble tablets were cemented into bases but that was decades ago and thankfully wasn't done to a lot of them.
*Info above and photos below provided by our local host Sarah Donahue*
