The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Inc., has a Mission: to promote the beautification, appreciation of and education about the Cemetery, which provides a peaceful venue to reflect on the lives of the people buried here.
The spring 2021 issue of Discover Concord on page 30 has the article "Beyond Authors Ridge," co-authored by two of our Board members, Susan Dee and Kevin Thomas Plodzik.
It details the researched information about not-so-well-known and assuredly interesting persons whose final resting place is in the Cemetery. The article serves as a guide for locating the grave sites of the individuals described.
The print publication can be obtained free of charge at over 50 business and retail locations in Town. In addition, the article can be viewed here.
Click here to read about our tree signage project of labeling Massachusetts indigenous trees and to print our tree location map.
The Melvin Memorial stands in memory of the three Melvin Concord brothers who died in the Civil War. Sculpted by Daniel Chester French at the request of his childhood friend, James Melvin, in honor of his siblings, the Memorial was originally dedicated on June 16, 1909.
Also known as “Mourning Victory”, the Memorial was restored to its former dignity on June 20, 2019, through the collaborative efforts of Town Departments, a State Grant, and contributions. The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery donated at that ceremony the informative signage permanently positioned at the Memorial.
Designed by landscape designer Horace W.S. Cleveland, Sleepy Hollow is one of the earliest and best examples of a "rural" or "garden" cemetery. The rural cemetery movement was inspired by romantic ideas about death, and the new attitudes regarding the healing powers of nature and art.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the largest of the three cemeteries, is on the National Registry of Historic Places and extends for two-fifths of a mile on the north side of Bedford Street.
Of its estimated 10,000 gravesites, many are of local, national and international significance. Composed of 119 acres, it is laid out in several phases, including the New Burying Ground (1823) and Sleepy Hollow (1855).
Yankee Magazine recently highlighted Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in an article entitled Where Concord's Legends Lie.
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