4. Old Burying Ground

sign for Old Burial Hill

The Old Burying Ground off Main Street is rooted in the American Revolution, which contained Fort Golgotha. The fort was constructed by British troops on the orders of Colonel Benjamin Thompson in 1782 and was joined by a handful of other forts around Huntington, including Fort Slongo (now known as Fort Salonga) and Fort Franklin by Lloyd Neck. The fort was dismantled a year later after British troops retreated, and the burial grounds were restored.

The burial ground itself was established soon after the town’s 1653 founding; the first headstone dates to about 1712. The cemetery was most active in the first half of the 19th century. Many graves, made of slate and sandstone originally, bear the names of the town’s founders, including Sammis, Ketchum, and Conklin. The last person was buried in 1957, but many old gravestones in the four-acre cemetery still maintain many original details.