NewCanaanite.com (http://nctest.proxy02.mageenet.net/consultants-report-on-maple-street-burial-grounds-clears-way-for-merritt-village-development-47919)
Merritt Village site: Feature 3/Burial 3 Feature 2/Burial 2 Feature 1/Burial 1 David Law Died 1835
Merritt Village site: Coffin hardware from Feature 2: items were reburied in respective features.
Merritt Village site: Feature 4 coffin lid, two cross mended pieces, “A. S.”
Merritt Village site: Features 1, 2 and 3 (right to left), in North Trench, view to the west.
Though a tooth, coffin fragments and pieces of arm, finger, leg and pelvis bone turned up following an archeological study of the “Maple Street Burial Grounds,” the only bodies still buried there already have been identified, according to a new report.
The body and coffin pieces speak to shoddy work in transferring 13 bodies long ago from the burial grounds to sites such as Lakeview Cemetery, and do not constitute current interments, two experts from a Westport-based archeological and historic structure consulting firm said in a report published last week.
As such, construction of a new, 110-unit housing complex approved in November by the New Canaan Planning & Zoning Commission can proceed with a few basic protective measures, Cece Saunders and Dawn Brown of Historical Perspectives Inc. said in their Feb. 16 report.
“The archaeological excavations confirmed the presence of three intact Law family burials, the historic removal of eleven Hoyt-Keeler family burials and the historic removal of two St. John family burials,” according to the report. “No other burial shafts were encountered.”
During construction of the “Merritt Village” apartment-and-condo complex in the middle of the Maple-Mead-Park Streets block, property owner and developer M2 Partners should, according to the firm:
The findings come as M2 is scheduled to appear before P&Z next week with an amended site plan and special permit application.
Following P&Z’s approval in November, which came with 60-plus conditions, the graves of a prominent shoemaker from the early 19th Century and two of his relatives turned up in one section of a parcel located alongside one of the planned Merritt Village buildings.
Historical Perspectives Inc.’s conclusion that no additional burials are located on M2’s property appears to clear the developer with respect to at least some of the P&Z conditions. (In December, M2 had filed an administrative appeal citing several of the conditions that involve the burial ground.)
Archeologists excavating from the burial ground site also turned up an early-1900’s trash “midden,” or old dump for domestic waste, according to the consultants.
Saying that “the study of the Maple Street Burial Grounds will considerably add to the history of New Canaan, Connecticut,” the consultants trace the origins of coffin remnants unearthed at the site, artifacts that “show a transition of burial practices and possible socioeconomic differentiation in 19th century New Canaan.”
They discovered coffin hardware—corroded nails and white metal screws, fragments of coffin wood, tacks, flat glass and butt hinges—and in the case of the shoemaker, David Law (whose burial site was left as it was found), clear flat glass over the head of the coffin.
“The growing popularity of coffin viewing windows in the 19th century was a reflection of both a fear of being buried alive and the increased desire to view the dead, which was spawned by the introduction of embalming, the development of sanitary measures and the germ theory, and advancement in the craft of undertaking that improved the appearances of corpses,” according to Saunders and Brown.
The bodies found at the Maple Street Burial Grounds reflected trends in interment in other ways, the consultants found.
While in the 18th century, the bodies of the deceased were prepared by the family and coffins made by cabinet-makers using regular furniture hardware, burying the dead by the mid-19th century “becomes a specialized field with undertakers and mass produced coffins and specifically designed hardware (silver nameplate and decorative coffin screws).”
Meanwhile, M2 officials say they have filed for demolition permits in December, and notified residents that they will need to relocate.
M2 Partners still has several months of architectural work ahead of it, managing partner Arnold Karp has said, and is looking at extensive abatement work removing asbestos and lead paint prior to the physical demolition.
The two-year project, if it starts in earnest in the next few months, should be finished by the spring of 2019, he said.
Shame on this article for misinterpreting both what was found, recommended and said by the P&Z Commission. “This approval is expressly conditioned upon satisfactory evidence to the P&Z Department that there have been no burials on Parcel P at any time”, Town Counsel Ira Bloom, Hearing 11-29-16 video on-line at 3 hours, 50 Minutes forward for a full discussion by the Commission on the Conditions ruling out use of the top of the cemetery to build on by if any ‘human remains are found’. Condition #22…. Found in Parcel P: 19 grave shafts, 3 full burials, human remains including tooth, partail distal radius and ulna, fragments of phalanges, partial left and right tibia, fragments of pelvis, degraded tarsal & metatarsal…left behind or badly degraded and disturbed at the top of the cemetery where a roadway was put in? Recommendation? Based on November dig, no t January digging…..CGS statutes protect old burial grounds which can not be owned by, or used for any other purpose. Rest in Peace? Or be used to build expensive condos on, and underground parking below? History in the making?
Terry, thank you for submitting your comment, however hastily. Please note that this is not an editorial on what P&Z should do with the consultants’ report. Like you, I lack the expertise in fields such as archeology and the law to render a worthwhile opinion along those lines. This is a news article summarizing that report’s findings and recommendations. I look forward to hearing how P&Z interprets the findings and whether this report satisfies the commission’s own conditions for approval. Let’s please wait for next week’s meeting to hear what they have to say. Thanks again.
The thought I had about this is, does New Canaan really need this housing project? There are so many unoccupied houses already. I know thats not the point of the article but it is what came to mind.
That question was central to the Planning & Zoning Commission’s deliberations, through open public hearings and direct communication with the applicant and third-party consultants, and internally during closed public hearings prior to issuing the conditioned approval in November. What the applicant argued, in part, was that single-level “in-town” condo and rental units, within walking distance of the business district and train station, are not competing with the types of houses that have lingered on the market in recent months and years. You’re right that—in one way—it’s not what the article is about. Yet I imagine some of those who have taken up rather suddenly and with at least outward passion the cause of the “Maple Street Burial Ground”—itself re-discovered by the property owner and developer, rather than any individual or group that purports to care about local history—are in reality deeply concerned about housing options and real estate values.