Vale Cemetery and Vale Park
Vale Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery and the largest cemetery in Schenectady, New York. It opened on 21 October 1857 when the Rev. Julius Seely dedicated what was then termed "the Vale". It has tripled its size since opening and today it holds the remains of some of the most notable persons in Upstate New York. In 1973, a 35-acre tract of unused and abandoned cemetery land around the ponds of Cowhorn Creek was sold to the city of Schenectady to form Vale Park. The cemetery and park were listed on the National  Register of Historic Places in 2004. History. By 1850 the old public burying ground on Green and Front streets was being overrun with weeds and was described as being unsanitary. The Common Council resolved on 2 July 1856 to develop the grounds of the old Hospital Farm on Nott Terrace as a public cemetery. On 16 June 1857, Mayor Benjamin V. S. Vedder appointed a committee to oversee the work. To provide access from a main street, Dr Eliphalet Nott, the President of Union College donated an avenue from Nott Terrace into the grounds. Later in 1863, two pieces of  land were purchased from the college, creating what is now known as Vale Park. The entrance on State Street was a donation from the First Reformed Church in 1867. The cemetery was planned by Burton Thomas as a rural cemetery. It featured many winding paths and he had more than 1,000 trees planted; Cowhorn Creek was dammed to create a lake within the grounds. The cemetery has since expanded and covers approximately and holds some 33,000 burials. The cemetery includes the historic African-American Burying Ground. Since 2001, city residents have held annual commemorations of Juneteenth, celebrating emancipation and the  end of the American Civil War; particularly since 2006, some have been held at the Burying Ground. Vale Cemetery Association. In February 1858, the Common Council declared that it could not continue to run the cemetery at the taxpayers' expense and that the cemetery must be taken up by private owners. Fourteen of the lot holders formed the Vale Cemetery Association and bought the from the Common Council. They paid the sum of $800, and announced that some land, known as the Potters' Field, would be set aside for the burial of the poor. In 2007 as part of  the Schenectady Colonial celebrations, the Association held a dinner to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cemetery. Vale mapping project. In late 2006, interest in mapping the cemetery was indicated by several people connected with the cemetery. They developed the Vale mapping project. The project started in spring 2007, using GPS and techniques used in England and Scotland to locate each grave. The group intends to map all the graves and document them, to establish a full record before there is further damage or deterioration of many of the historic memorials. Notable burials. The information on notable burials has been  extracted and précised from Katherine Olney Delain's "Biographies of Notables at Vale Cemetery" (2005). Sections. The cemetery is divided into several sections, each having its own historic importance: