What better way to welcome Autumn than by taking a stroll around the Ancient Burying Ground?
Occasionally I come upon historic photos of Main Street and bury those images in my brain, remembering them when in a place like this that is abutted now by a hideous parking garage. It’s a double insult when you know what the previous buildings looked like and how downtown had once been more designed for humans. There were more buildings, smaller, and without giant gaps created by parking lots. People were plentiful in those photographs of Main Street.
Nostalgia without action is a broken emotion, so I urge Hartford at every opportunity to remove its obstacles to thriving. Honestly assess our parking supply and demand, and reduce those lots and garages more than what is advised after crunching numbers. Narrow the roadways so people can more safely cross. Prioritize people over the automobile. There are many other steps Hartford can take to increase its energy, but seriously focusing on this one aspect would by itself make a substantial difference.
These are the thoughts that come up in the Ancient Burying Ground, a space of four acres often bathed in golden light spread from its neighbor to the north.
Around 6,000 people are thought to be buried here, a number that seems impossible to those who do not spend quite so much time thinking about burial sites and how that many people could fit on this lot. Many graves are unmarked. Some are below buildings, possibly the sidewalk and street.
It is a place you are allowed to be; the open gates and benches inside tell you that. Sitting in and with the quiet of cemeteries may not be all that trendy, and that’s good.
It means watching hawks and squirrels who are hunting and gathering.
It means gaining an appreciation for the eerie inscriptions from back in the day, when reminding others of their certain demise was more fashionable than carving “live, laugh, love” or some-such into what would mark one’s maybe final resting place. Sometimes remains are moved. The word final has little meaning. If a burial site can be shifted, so can anything else. We have more than one season. Things change.
