By Bill Fergerson
Village of North Syracuse Historian
Walking through the village during the last Memorial Day parade, Mayor Butterfeld and I were talking about the historical significance of the cemetery. This conversation launched a summer project between the North Syracuse Cemetery Association, the village historian and the parks department. Teresa Roth, parks department director, later received a call from a group of volunteers from Leadership Greater Syracuse looking for service opportunity in the village. Between her efforts and the rest of the village, the cemetery became the summer project.
Thanks to the help of the North Syracuse Cemetery Association board members, the cemetery employees, the volunteers from Leadership Greater Syracuse and the North Syracuse Parks Department, the stones were pressure washed and cleaned. The fence line was also cleaned to provide a clearer view of the North Syracuse historical gravesites. Many of the village residents now pass by daily allowing for the cemetery to be more visible. As with many older grave markers, great care had to be taken during the process, as the construction materials used in the 1800s were not as durable as the granite that is used today.
The North Syracuse Cemetery for many years existed solely on the Plank Road (currently Route 11). In less than 100 years, the Board of Directors realized that they would need more room for expansion and the cemetery secured an agreement for safe passage across South Bay Road at a time when the trolley was still running. This agreement between the Syracuse and Northern Electric Railway Company provided decades of additional growth. The first building, which was the office for the cemetery, still stands on the side of Route 11. Currently it is used as winter storage and allows for other buildings to conduct day-to-day operations for the cemetery.
Following the expansion, many village activities such as field days to baseball games were held in the new space. Some village residents (although as time progresses, they are few and far between) remember an early cemetery board decision to allow for baseball games on Sundays, as long as there were no burials or church services being held within the village. Once the cemetery continued to grow, many of the additional spaces become developed. Many of the residents who played baseball on the field came back years later to buy grave spaces and be buried roughly in the spaces where the bases were or positions they had once played.
The North Syracuse Cemetery Association is run by a board of directors and meets several times a year to plan for additional development, as well as making sure that the perpetual maintenance takes place. In recent years the cemetery has paved all the roads in the cemetery to provide for safer visits for families and added columbaria for cremated remains. The cemetery has been final resting place for many community pioneers including veterans all the way back to the Revolutionary War. The cemetery is open for visitors from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, and it is worth a walk through the cemetery to explore the village history.
