Bridge Street Cemetery

Bridge Street Cemetery, 2020. Alfred Barten Photograph Collection (ID 2024.83.224)

Bridge Street Cemetery is located at 156 Bridge Street (Route 9) in Northampton next to Lampron Park and the Bridge Street Elementary School.  Established in 1661, it is the oldest cemetery in Northampton.  The City of Northampton oversees the cemetery.

Bridge Street Cemetery attracts visitors from all over the country in search of gravestones of ancestors.  According to the City of Northampton’s cemetery division, the official burial records were lost to fire.  Over the centuries, local individuals have studied its history, compiled inscriptions, plotted gravesite locations and researched the names carved in stone as well as those who carved the stones.  Others have advocated for the preservation of deteriorating stones and some maintain the grounds and oversee day-to-day operations as part of the city’s cemetery division.   Below are some of the sources compiled by local historians as well as the City of Northampton Master Preservation Plan (2016).

black and white plan of Bridge Street cemetery

Resources on the Bridge Street Cemetery

Plan of a Part of the Bridge Street Cemetery, Northampton, Mass.
Survey and Plan by E.C. Davis, 1885
Original Map, traced, with additions, February 1918 by E.C. Davis, C.E.
The map was redrawn in May 1931 by Walter E. Corbin, Florence, Mass.

This plot map shows the location of family plots identified by surname (family last names).  The street names on the map are no longer marked in the cemetery.

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Cover of pamphlet with text 'Inscriptions on the Gravestones in the Grave Yards of Northampton, and of Other Towns in the Valley of the Connecticut, as Springfield, Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, Deerfield, etc. with Brief Annals of Northampton. Embellished with portraits of President Edwards and Governot Strong. Transcribed by Thomas Bridgman. Northampton, Mass. Published by Hopkins, Bridgman & Co. 1850'
Inscriptions on the grave stones in the grave yards of Northampton, …
Compiled by Thomas Bridgman (Northampton, MA: Hopkins, Bridgman & Co., 1850)
Full title: Inscriptions on the Grave Stones in the Grave Yards of Northampton, and of other towns in the Valley of the Connecticut, as Springfield, Amherst, Hadley, Hatfield, Deerfield, &c. with Brief Annals of Northampton.

View this work on the Internet Archive website

City of Northampton Bridge Street Cemetery Preservation Master Plan
Funded by the Northampton Community Preservation Committee
his plan was compiled by Martha Lyon of Martha Lyon Landscape Architecture, LLC with input from city residents and gravestone preservation consultants.  In 2015, the Ward Three Neighborhood Association and the Department of Public Works secured a Northampton Community Preservation Committee grant to draft a long-term preservation plan for the Bridge Street Cemetery.  
color photo of the gates of a cemetary, partially opened
Photo by Emma Winter Zeig, 2022

Bridge Street Cemetery Gravestones
A list of selected gravestones compiled by students in a Teaching Local History course at Smith College in the late 1990s.

Additional Resources