Spencer’s Corners Burying Ground project begins

MILLERTON —  This week, cemetery conservators arrived to begin work on erecting the Dakin monuments in the Spencer’s Corners Burying Ground on Merwin Road. 

The crew of the Monument Conservation Collaboration (MCC) roped off the area and put up scaffolding in order to repair and upright the Dakin obelisk and several monuments belonging to the Rev. Dakin and his family. Dakin was the original founder of the site, where he built the Baptist church and grave yard. Over the centuries the cemetery’s headstones and monuments have collapsed, affected by time, air pollution and frost-heaving. 

The Friends of Spencer’s Corners have a long-term goal to restore, repair and conserve the site, not only for future generations, but also to honor the ancestors of the original settlers who are buried there. The phase 1 restoration of 400 headstones is estimated to take over five years to complete. 

So far, the group has raised more than $9,000 in private donations and $1,000 from the Town of North East to begin work. The organization’s website, www.spencerscorners.org,  contains more information and photographs. Donations are welcome to help preserve this historic burying ground for the community.

MCC is a nationally recognized pioneer in conserving sacred places with expertise in soils, groundwater, mapping, restoration and conservation of stone markers. The group has preserved cemeteries from nearby Kingston and Goshen, Connecticut, to Pago Pago in Samoa.