Selected founding documents and monument history, with links to the operating cemetery’s maps and burial search. Current address: 769 Ella T. Grasso Boulevard, New Haven. This collection is not a complete interment register. No rights-cleared historic cemetery landscape photograph was located in this pass.
Executive history
Evergreen emerged in 1848 as New Haven residents sought more readily available cemetery lots. Atwater’s 1887 history traces the project to a September 15 meeting, a purchase of thirteen acres from Nathan Peck and a plan for three hundred shares at ten dollars each. The association initially used Washington Cemetery Association and adopted Evergreen on October 19. These organizational steps explain why an establishment date need not be identical to the first burial or consecration. [EVG-001]
The same account identifies Lewis Fisk as the first person interred, in lot 50 on Myrtle Avenue. It prints his birth on April 10, 1807 and death on November 29, 1848. The grounds were consecrated June 29, 1849. Since Fisk’s death precedes that ceremony, the history documents use before formal consecration; it does not justify silently converting his death date into an exact burial date. [EVG-001]
Growth followed the first purchase. Atwater records the acquisition of Peck Woods from Henry E. Peck on April 21, 1856 for $7,000. The precise transaction offers a useful milestone for reading later lot plans. It does not establish the boundaries or acreage of every later addition, which require their own deeds and maps. [EVG-001]
Monuments also connect Evergreen to the city’s working trades. Atwater places Thomas Phillips & Son’s 1877 branch yard at Winthrop and Sylvan avenues opposite the cemetery. His trade survey attributes several Evergreen memorials to the firm, including those for the Odd Fellows, George M. Harmon and Oliver F. Winchester. The passage offers a starting point for studying makers and commissions, while distinguishing those commissions from the firm’s work at other cemeteries. [EVG-002]
Evergreen remains an operating cemetery and crematory. Its own website identifies an eighty-five-acre, nonsectarian nonprofit institution founded in 1848, with trustee governance and a permanent care fund. Researchers can consult the cemetery’s burial-search page and separately published overall and section maps. A map shows spatial organization, while a search result is a name-based record; neither is an acquired original register in this collection. [EVG-006]
Key dates
1848-09-15 — Preliminary meeting to establish the cemetery association. EVG-001
1848-10-19 — Evergreen replaces Washington in the association’s name. EVG-001
Late 1848 — First interment: Lewis Fisk, who died November 29; exact burial date not stated. EVG-001
1856-04-21 — Purchase of Peck Woods from Henry E. Peck. EVG-001
1877 — Thomas Phillips & Son opens a monument yard opposite Evergreen. EVG-002
A closer look at the surviving record
Three beginnings for one cemetery
Organization in September 1848, a first interment later that year and consecration in June 1849 describe different events. Keeping all three prevents an attractive but inaccurate single “opening day.”
The 1887 trade history shows how cemetery growth supported a specialized stone-working business. Its list of commissions can guide a monument survey, but is neither an exhaustive inventory nor proof that every listed monument survives today.
Includes source text where acquired. Source websites require an internet connection. OCR may contain errors; verify names and dates against the scan.
6 catalog entries
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EVG-001 · Historical documents · 1887
Evergreen Cemetery’s founding and first interment
Page 689 of Edward E. Atwater’s History of the City of New Haven distinguishes the 1848 association, its first interment, the 1849 consecration and the 1856 expansion. The same page briefly identifies Fair Haven’s cemetery behind its Congregational church.
Public domain in the United States: published in 1887. Complete page retained. Verified printed page 689; Internet Archive leaf 1185. The first burial must not be dated November 29 solely from the death date.
Selected reading of page 689; editorial summary, not a complete transcription.
The account dates the preliminary cemetery meeting September 15, 1848, describes thirteen acres bought from Nathan Peck and three hundred ten-dollar shares, and records the change from Washington Cemetery Association to Evergreen on October 19, 1848.
Lewis Fisk (April 10, 1807–November 29, 1848) is identified as the first person interred, in lot 50, Myrtle Avenue. The date printed for him is a death date, not an expressly stated burial date.
The grounds were consecrated June 29, 1849. The Peck Woods enlargement was purchased from Henry E. Peck on April 21, 1856 for $7,000.
The page also identifies the Fair Haven cemetery behind the First Congregational Church as a Protestant burial ground.
Credit: Edward E. Atwater, History of the City of New Haven (1887), p. 689; Internet Archive scan. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-001, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
EVG-002 · Historical documents · 1887
The stone-cutters behind New Haven’s monuments
Atwater’s account names Thomas Phillips & Son and its 1877 branch yard opposite Evergreen, then lists monuments attributed to the firm in Evergreen, Grove Street and Fair Haven.
Public domain in the United States: published in 1887. Complete page retained. Verified printed page 630; Internet Archive leaf 1102. The earlier candidate page 628 does not contain this material and is excluded.
Selected reading of page 630, right column, Stone-Cutters.
The account says Thomas Phillips & Son was established in 1845 at 143 High Street. A branch yard opened in 1877 at Winthrop and Sylvan avenues, opposite Evergreen Cemetery. It attributes the Odd Fellows’, General George M. Harmon, D. S. Glenney, Frank Hooper and Lieutenant-Governor Oliver F. Winchester monuments in Evergreen to this firm. It separately lists commissions in Grove Street Cemetery and the D. D. Mallory monument in Fair Haven.
This is a trade history and an attribution of monuments, not a complete cemetery inventory or interment register.
Credit: Edward E. Atwater, History of the City of New Haven (1887), p. 630; Internet Archive scan. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-002, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
EVG-003 · Sources & research leads · Current
Official cemetery maps
Overall, Evergreen, Mapledale, Association Singles and numbered-section maps.
Current maps are linked. No public-domain or open-license statement was found for republication. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-003, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
EVG-004 · Sources & research leads · Current
Official burial search
Name-search route supplied by the operating cemetery.
Check each result and ask the cemetery about underlying registers and coverage. No mass export acquired. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-004, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
EVG-005 · Sources & research leads · Date not established
Connecticut Digital Archive search
Potential repository route for historical New Haven cemetery photographs, lot maps and institutional records.
Repository lead only; no specific Evergreen item with verified reuse rights was selected. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-005, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
EVG-006 · Sources & research leads · Source consulted September 2026
Supporting source: evergreencem.org
Supporting source for the collection history and chronology.
External source; consult the original publication for its full context.
Credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source. Cite SGC SGC-EVG-022, EVG-006, source title, page and URL; accessed September 8, 2026.
