Westport is a lively town.
Every day, “06880” reports on life here: people of all ages, organizations of all kinds, events of all types that make living here so much fun.
From time to time, we cover dead people too.
We’ve written several times about the town’s cemeteries. One of the most interesting is Kings Highway Colonial Cemetery.
Kings Highway Colonial Cemetery. (Photo/Josh Berkowsky)
It’s not big. It’s pretty visible — on the much-traveled corner of Kings Highway North and Wilton Road, directly across from the medical center — but easy to miss unless, stopped at the traffic light, you happen to glance around.
It’s the final resting place of some famous folks.
The Taylor family — who gave their name to the neighborhood then called Taylortown (the nearby marsh is still called that) — share a large section with the Marvins (of tavern fame).
Abigail Taylor’s grave.
A non-family member is also interred there: Dinah, a “colored” servant and cook. (That was not a common practice, for sure.)
There’s the Judah family too, among the first Jewish residents of Westport (then part of Norwalk). Michael moved from New York City because of anti-Semitism. His son Henry became an Episcopal minister; Henry’s son, Henry Moses Judah, was a brigadier general in the Mexican-American and Civil Wars.
Earlier this year, Henry Moses Judah — the last Civil War general with an unmarked grave — finally received his headstone.
In 2020, at the request of a reader, “06880” wrote about the debris and disrepair at the Kings Highway cemetery — one of the oldest and most historic in town.
Four years later, another reader reports that the graveyard is still a mess.
Josh Berkowsky has lived in Westport for all his 23 years. He loves local history. And he’s distressed at the state of the burial ground.
Josh writes: “The town-owned cemetery is in abysmal condition. Headstones are subject to all manner of damage — not only the weathering you’d expect from 300-plus years of New England rain and snow, but also chipping, cracking and other structural damage.
(Photo/Josh Berkowsky)
“Some have fallen over completely. Others bend at odd angles. Some are just leaning against their bases.
“I even found a pile of headstones, loosely stacked against a tree together. Another is partially inside a stump.
“The burial vaults, which are one of the site’s most striking features from the road and what drew me to it in the first place, are nearly completely sunk into the ground, their entrances obscured by years of dirt.
“Even worse, among the landscaping issues, which included the usual loose sticks, leaves and overgrown sections you’d expect from decades of neglect, a number of trees have fallen on the property. A few are on headstones directly.
(Photo/Josh Berkowsky)
“Among the maintenance problems I noticed rusting fences, a broken bench, broken plot markers, and missing stones in the border wall.
“I do note with satisfaction that neighboring houses seem to be keeping up with the upkeep for the sections of the wall that border them.
“I find, when talking about it, people tend to know it from the street. But no one I’ve talked to has actually been there.
“I can’t blame them. Parking is non-existent, and busy traffic conditions plus a lack of pedestrian infrastructure make for dangerous walking even if you could park.
“I imagine this is why the site has so little foot traffic, and so few people know about the state it’s in.
“It’s sad that this little piece of history is so neglected. I imagine it might become a nice little spot in our little town, full of so many interesting stories we’re losing to time.”
(Photo/Josh Berkowsky)
Josh is right about those interesting stories. I’ve got one, from my teenage years growing up here.
At a mound not far from the road — perhaps the spot where Benedict Arnold (not yet a traitor) set up a cannon to thwart the British as they returned from their 1777 raid on Danbury (they thwarted him, taking a different route back to Compo Beach) — there was a secret, spooky spot long known to kids like me.
If you lay flat on your stomach, and peered into the area where the ground had shifted, you could see all the way down to the bottom. There — arrayed like a horror film — sat a set of bones.
I’ve forgotten many things about being a kid here.
But as long as I live, I’ll always remember that skeleton.
(“06880” covers Westport — life here today, and yesterday. If you enjoy learning about our history through this blog, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
(Photo/Josh Berkowsky)
Just one in a long list of reasons the town is a bad neighbor…not as egregious or stupid as the town being exempt from the leaf blower “regulation,” but surly an indication of an administration (or many such) not gving an shit or putting its money where is it’s mouth.
Really? Is that your take on the story? Westport may have its flaws as do every town, but as a whole it’s a wonderful place to live and we should all be proud to live here. That said, I take my hat off to 06880 for point this out and I expect that some kind soul or souls will take on the project and make it right. I personally liked the suggestion about a project for the Scouts.
Yes, Greg, that is really my “take on the story.”
Furthermore, any suggestion for a remedy to the neglect of the cemetary ALSO reflects that EXACT “take” on the story. QED!
Seems like a great and ongoing historic project for local boy and Girl Scout troops! Good work Josh.
I strongly support the point of the column about the Kings Highway Cemetery. How odd this town should so egregiously neglect its history. Rectifying this situation and providing subsequent access should be relatively easy to do, without a large investment of resources. Let’s do it – and take pride and pleasure in our distant past!
I have always wondered about that cemetery. Thanks for filling us in but holy moly what a story.
When the story about the appalling condition of this town owned historic burying ground first surfaced on 06880 four years ago, I pointed out that the Westport Historic District Commission has a publicly stated goal of establishing a program to restore and appropriately maintain these cemeteries. I also predicted that, despite the aforementioned, exactly nothing would happen.
And here we are.
It’s virtually impossible to visit. There isn’t even a sidewalk on that side of the street. I have sometimes wandered through the equally old Coley cemetery on Weston Road at the Weston border. At least there you can pull your car in and park.
I’ve passed this cemetery on numerous occasions over the years and always wondered about it, but never stopped due to the problems mentioned in the article (no parking, sidewalks, etc.). Another problem with old cemetery’s is vandalism which has struck at the Coley Cemetery (formerly the Norfield Cemetery just over the border in Weston) at least twice in recent years and there are numerous stones pushed over and broken including my great grandmother Abigail (Gray) Coley. At least there, the town of Weston mows the grass and there is the ability to drive in and park.
My kids and I like to walk through there. It is bigger than it looks from the road and goes back pretty far. Some of my kids relatives are in there so they really get to feel the history from a personal perspective.
Dan – Ooooo. Bones! Deserted cemetery. Ya got a YA Stephen King-lite novel aborn’ there, me thnks. Now throw in Paul Newman, somehow.
My mother grew up in a home on King’s Highway North that was adjacent to the cemetery. As kids when we visited our grandparents we would sometimes go over there and get creeped out on a summer night. I haven’t thought about that place in years Dan, thanks for this story bringing back some old memories.
I lived directly across the street from this cemetery in the early 70’s, and it was maintained quite a bit more than now.
Wrong e-mail, Dan. Cataract surgery mistake!
I left a comment at the Pic Of The Day before I saw this story…
“Shortly before moving from Westport in 1974, my family leased a house just North of this site on Wilton Road, for almost 2 years. I can’t remember why, but we used to walk through this small cemetery, maybe while walking to a friends house? It was the first and only cemetery I ever saw of this kind. A few headstones, scattered around with no symmetry. I can’t remember exactly, but the dates we could still read at the time on the headstones were at least 1750’s. And if my memory hasn’t completely failed, I think there were some 1600’s scattered around. I haven’t thought of this cemetery in over 50 years, until I saw this.”
With all that said, I was taken aback by the “bad neighbor” comment. I haven’t lived in Westport in over 50 years. We moved in 1974 because we had to, NOT because we wanted to. We stayed in touch with Westport the best we could all these years. First, by making sure our subscription to the “Westport Town Crier” was kept current. That’s how I found out my friend Ted Reynolds passed away the summer we moved. He died a month or two after we moved away, in a house fire early in the morning. He came home early in the morning, started cooking a steak in the kitchen, went upstairs to his third story bedroom, and fell asleep. Since I lived just down the street, that’s what the two of us did a couple of times in the past few years prior. Except, we usually finished eating, then I went home and he went upstairs to crash! We always ended up at his house eating before going home. He was one of the last high school friends I saw the weekend I left Westport. His house was right down the street from this cemetery.
And of course, since the internet has taken over our lives the past 30 years, thank G-d for Dan Woog and 06880, allowing us expats to keep abreast of the inner happenings of the town we grew up in and love so much!
If I could do it all over again, I not only would have lived in Westport the past 50 years, but I’d be living out my days there! It boggles my mind to no end when I see comments like this, knowing what Westport is and what is has to offer. Anyone who makes a comment so negative about a town such as Westport with everything it has to offer, either doesn’t live there or has some real issues. If this is truly how you feel, I highly suggest you move away for a few years and see how wrong you were to make such a naive comment. Go live in Bridgeport, or take a bus and settle down in downtown Norwalk for a few years!
Just do me one huge favor. Please, let me know when you come crawling back to Westport. I want to witness you kissing the ground as you get off Exit 17! Some people have absolutely no clue how good they have it!
Jesus, Adam, I was not saying Westport is a bad TOWN…I have lived here for 54 years. I said it’s a bad neighbor and it is…it allows town to make noise from which citizens are barred, it takes down tree for its own liability reasons, it poorly maintains certain areas, it dumps debris where citizens cannot and etc.
It may well be better than Bridgeport and Norwalk in all ways, but that’s a hell of a low bar, Adam. It’s a fine town but not. fine neighbor.
I grew up just up Wilton road from here and live in South Norwalk now.
Does you know who is in charge of maintaining it now? Someone cuts the grass, but that’s about it.
Anyone interested in organizing a group to clean it up?
And what about the Cemetery further up Wilton Road, before the Merritt Parkway on the left? Its probably just as old and in equally bad shape