Concord Reformatory Cemetery Project
Community Outreach – Spring 2023
Spring, 2023 – Concord Prison Outreach Newsletter
It was March 6, 2023, when the CPO Concord Cemetery Advisory group originally conducted a site visit to determine how the ADA pathway design ( Bruce Freeman Rail Trail ) could best serve all visitors at the project site.
In April 2021, I was a couple of weeks into starting my role as the New Executive Director of CPO. Patty Ruze contacted me about this project idea, but I had no idea how the project could be aligned with the CPO mission and attract larger interest in the community of Concord. Several weeks later, Patty and I visited the Cemetery site, and to my surprise, the physical landscape of the cemetery rested on a small declining hill facing Route 2.
When standing atop of the cemetery, you look into a large open vegetation space with a marsh-like grassy area. As we walked through the space, I noticed no headstones marking the burial locations. Instead, lying flat on the earth were concrete square stones with the acronym of various prisons and a number indicating the plot number.
The CPO staff decided to call the project “Naming the Unnamed”.” We felt that an important part of Concord’s town history would be untold if we did not give a voice and identity to the individuals buried here. During our genealogy research, we found a website called “Find A Grave” and quickly noticed that someone had already populated the website with information on the buried individuals. What was once a simple project idea quickly morphed into a much more complex body of work that exceeded the CPO staff’s time, capacity, and expertise.
Several months later, we talked with Lisa Kennedy of Mass College of Art and Design, who agreed to make the project a class assignment for her students. In our initial meeting with students in Kennedy’s “Professional Illustration for the Community”, we gave an overview of what we hoped to accomplish in our work. We encourage the students to be compassionate and creative in what they would produce for us.
Genealogy research can be time-consuming and frustrating as oftentimes, there is misleading and missing information that can you send you down endless rabbit holes. We instructed students to use their creative minds and design images, symbols, landscapes of people’s occupation, place of origin, or any other positive characteristics that give identities to each person buried. After three months of research and meeting, Kennedy’s students showcased their research finding to the CPO staff, and with great delight, the results were amazing and beautiful.
As time passed, CPO staff began talking to more people in town and recruited partnerships from the Friends of Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, Concord Free Public Library, Dept. of Correction, local historians, interested community members, and representatives from Concord Public Works, City Planning, Veteran’s Department, and Cemetery Supervisor. In over 18 months, the project had grown to have an active advisory group meeting monthly to help guide the future direction.
Additionally, through hard work and great coordination, Lisa Kennedy was able to compile the student’s research efforts into a bound book, which is now being used as a central tool for marketing the project.
Lastly, the town of Concord has designated some funding support to eventually create an ADA pathway to the cemetery, along with an interpretive panel, and reflection bench for visitors. CPO would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project over the last two years.
There is still much more work ahead, but with continued momentum and strong support, we plan to sustain our work and complete the project in the upcoming years
— Sam Williams, Executive Director | April 2023
