Restoration work at the 200-year-old pioneer cemetery on Congress Avenue in Rochester, NY began in 2015 and is ongoing. The cemetery includes military and civilian burials. It is a joint project of the 19th Ward Community Association, its History & Archives group, local veterans organizations and the City of Rochester. Reclamation support comes from coordination with City departments, neighborhood volunteers, Scout groups and college service organizations.
Ground-penetrating radar scanning of the 1.5 acre site took place in 2016. Research continues into the lives of persons buried at Rapids Cemetery and the neighborhood’s rich Abolition-era history. To celebrate our progress, we held an inaugural Independence Day celebration in 2018 with outdoor choral music from the 19th Century.
In recognition of the 19th Ward Community Association’s 50th anniversary in 2015, the organization was honored by the Landmark Society of Western New York with a Special Citation Award highlighting that the association “strives to preserve the residential character of its neighborhood by fostering a multi-racial community where people share a sense of pride and culture, as well as history.”
To create this self-guided Rapids Cemetery tour, the 19th Ward Community Association’s History & Archives Group worked over a three-year period with Rochester Institute of Technology undergraduate teams. The first two years, the work was done under the direction of Professors Stephen Zilora and Mike Zink, Information Sciences and Technologies Department. The project was then handed over in 2020 to the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences Department and its Director, Jessica Catherine Lieberman, Associate Professor of Visual Culture. Seniors Michele Fensken, Marissa Burkland, and Andrew England completed the design and implementation of this project as their Capstone project.
Click here to visit the 19th Ward Community Association website.
Our conservation efforts were also reported on in the Sept./Oct. 2020 issue of the local (585) Magazine. You can read the article below.
