Though they’d support another group’s efforts, the owners of a 3.3-acre parcel on the edge of downtown New Canaan said Tuesday that they’re withdrawing an offer to restore, plaque and protect an abutting, long-ignored and historically important cemetery after hearing complaints that its presence should disrupt the their widely discussed redevelopment plans.
Hannah Benedict’s headstone at the Maple Street Cemetery in New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
When they applied to the town in June to create 123 housing units on the Merritt Apartments property where 38 now exist, the property’s owners hired a consultant who determined that Ezra Benedict’s 1852-buit “Maple Street Cemetery” is one generation away from vanishing due to neglect.
After running a sonar scan of the grounds and tracking down the heirs of 52 people buried there, property owner M2 Partners developed plans for rejuvenating the cemetery into a local landmark, with reset gravestones, family grouping and a plaque recognizing the remains of those interred with no headstone.
A close-up of a survey commissioned by M2 Partners of the Merritt Apartments property shows the burial ground.
“We were happy to do that and after the effort and time and the lack of consideration back to us of the applicant, we have withdrawn our offer of fencing it off, putting a plaque on it, putting a gate there and making sure it is not a ball field,” Arnold Karp of M2 Partners said during a subcommittee meeting of New Canaan’s legislative body.
“So whatever the Historical Society or the group of New Canaan residents who feel it should be taken care of, we are in favor of that,” he said at the Town Council Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Utilities meeting, held at Town Hall.
No one argues that the cemetery is significant to New Canaan’s history (see below), though before the Merritt Village proposal put a spotlight on it, the area had been neglected.
At the center of the discussion now has been the question of who owns the cemetery property.
“There seem to be some great misconceptions on this piece,” Karp said.
“We have a title search, we have clear title to a piece that is certainly ours, there is another piece that we are not claiming as ours, yet there are people who have already paved over the cemetery, put sheds on it.”
A color-coded map shows the three “sections” of the Maple Street Cemetery. The pink portion, owned outright by M2 Partners, contains no buried bodies and is the only section pictured here that falls within the group’s property—the property line runs between the blue and pink sections. Courtesy of M2 Partners
He referred to three separate “sections” of the cemetery: One is owned outright by M2 Partners, contains no buried bodies and is to be preserved as green space in the Merritt Village plan (in pink on the map at right); a second was granted to M2 Partners through a quitclaim deed that likely is not enforceable, rightly belongs to the heirs of those buried there and in any case is not claimed by M2 as part of its own property in the Merritt Village proposal (in blue, and note that M2 identifies its own property line as that which separates the blue and pink sections); and a third that is on the side of a different condominium association that fronts South Avenue and has already been paved over, in part.
Citing the need for clarification about whether the town owns any portion of the cemetery, the subcommittee ultimately voted 4-0 to refer the matter to the town attorney.
Town resident Terry Spring urged the committee to “take this issue very seriously, because the town opens it up to a wrongful transfer of land from a town-owned property to a private developer.”
Her comments come as the Board of Governors at the New Canaan Historical Society raised questions about the site.
In a letter sent Monday to the Board of Selectmen and obtained by NewCanaanite.com, the Historical Society said that it had “obtained records from the town that show that this cemetery consisting of 1.13 acres was sold to the town in 1900.”
“There has been a modicum of upkeep at this cemetery and in part it may have been encroached upon by various property owner,” the letter said. “However going forward, due to its historic importance to the town, we believe it should be resurveyed, restored and properly celebrated by the town for its significance to New Canaan’s early history. It should also be made easily accessible for public viewing.”
The board backed up its claim by citing a tax record online that appears to conflict with a survey commissioned by Karp and that forms part of M2 Partners’ application to the Planning & Zoning Commission.
“I can tell you without a doubt it is not a piece of town property,” Karp said.
Ed Vollmer, vice president of the Historical Society’s board, said at the meeting that the organization’s only interest is to do what’s needed to restore and preserve the cemetery.
“We would like to see the town actually take part,” he said.
Vollmer added: “We would like to see it become part of the history of New Canaan.”
It is.
According to Honeywell Restoration, the cemetery consultant hired by M2 Partners, it was established in 1825 by Col. Ezra Benedict “as a private burial ground for the shoemakers and others on Park Street.”
“Ezra was a hardworking individual who fathered many wealthy citizens of the town of New Canaan. A significant reason Maple Street exists and was extended to Park Street was because of Col. Ezra Benedict who wanted to make an access way to the private burial plot on his property. Ezra and the other men to whom he sold plots were the men who helped mould modern New Canaan. Few know who Ezra Benedict was, but everyone drives along the street he helped make a reality in order to honor the burial place of his family and friends.”
Town Council Chairman Bill Walbert, a guest at the meeting, said that when a letter comes in from the volunteers who oversee the Historical Society, “we are going to jump.”
“We will spring into action because yours is an important organization in town and we are your public servants and take that responsibility seriously,” Walbert said.
P&Z is scheduled to hold its fourth hearing on the Merritt Village proposal during a special meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Town Hall, and it’s also on the agenda for P&Z’s regular meeting next Tuesday night.
“Connecticut General Statutes Section 19a-315a through 19a-315c (inclusive) mandate the protection of the state’s ancient burial grounds, the preservation of the historic grave markers, and the respectful renovation and maintenance of historic cemeteries. These protections extend to any tract of land within any municipality which has been used or has been in existence as a burial ground for more than one hundred years.
The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is to be noticed of any planned restoration, improvements, or changes to an ancient burying ground along with lineal descendents and the appropriate probate court.”
Further, concerning the paved over burials appear to violate Connecticut Code Title 46a Human Rights Chapter 814c Human Rights and Opportunities Sec. 46a-58: (b) Any person who intentionally desecrates any public property, monument or structure, or any religious object, symbol or house of religious worship, or any cemetery… ”
The Town and State should enforce these existing laws and compel the prior desecrated sections be restored to their proper state.
“Town resident Terry Spring urged the committee to “take this issue very seriously, because the town opens it up to a wrongful transfer of land from a town-owned property to a private developer.””
Ms. Spring is right about one thing, that M2 Partners and the Town have taken the issue very seriously. M2 Partners has consistently stated that it does not want to own the cemetery (blue and yellow areas) and it will support any group’s restoration efforts. The confusion stems from people being misled or uninformed (however not maliciously) regarding this issue.
Ms. Spring has cited a tax card that has been again and again proven to be erroneous and thus misleading to anyone who has not done the proper deed research that clearly illuminates the true status of the land. The tax card claims the land was sold to the Town of New Canaan on 1 Jan 1900, however, the Town Clerk has admitted that this was a “plug” date because no known date by the clerk and assessor had been known at the time it was put into the database. The Land records demonstrate that in 1900 the Town of New Canaan was the grantee in a tax lien in 1900. There is nothing on the record indicating a transfer of a cemetery to the town.
The land record book referenced on the tax card is Book 5 page 381. This is a deed making reference to a single burial plot of 3 rods by 1 rod from Ezra Benedict to David Law in the 1827. This further demonstrates that the information on the tax card is inaccurate. Lastly, the size of the cemetery per the tax card of 1.13 acres is physically impossible. Looking at the tax map from the assessors office for the cemetery which is marked as “Lot 26” has general meets and bounds which roughly equate to 14,000 to 15,000 square feet (a generous estimate). Further, researching all the deeds for each burial parcel (16 individually recorded plots between 1824 to 1830) – nine plots are 3 rods by 1 rod, three plots are 1 rod by 1 rod, two plots are 2 rods by 1 rod, and one plot is 2 rods by 3 rods. Adding all this up in conjunction with a traditional portion for the driftway does not even come close to 1 acre, let alone 1.13 acres.
Lets set the record straight and stop misleading the citizens of New Canaan. No one is looking to “usurp” existing portions of the Maple Street Cemetery, and there cannot be a “transfer of town land to a private developer” if the town never owned the land in the first place. The Parcel “P” land, or commonly referred to now as the “Pink Parcel,” has a clear and unbroken chain of title that begins with the original proprietor of those plots to M2 Partners. The blue and yellow sections of the map are clearly understood to be cemetery. The pink area has no evidence that it has ever been used as burial ground which is why the heirs of those original proprietors of those plots sold it off as land tracts and not burial ground.
We all want the same thing: Maple Street Cemetery to be properly recognized and restored, but after a century of neglect, alongside a benighted public record, let us finally do what has never been done with Maple Street Cemetery before – set the record straight.
Respectfully Submitted,
Andrew R. Melillo