Thanksgiving Well Wishes

Cedar Hill Cemetery & Foundation wish all our friends and families a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. Cedar Hill's offices will be closed Thanksgiving Day but will reopen at 8:00am on Friday to serve you.

Unique Holiday Gifts from CHCF

With the holidays quickly approaching, Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation wanted to offer you some unique gift ideas for friends and family on your gift list.

1.) Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect. This beautiful table-top book shares the life and accomplishments of one of the world's pioneer landscape architects. Weidenmann's commissions include Bushnell Park and Cedar Hill Cemetery. Through December 30, Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation is offering author signed copies of Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect at 10% off the cover price - $47.65 (includes tax).

2.) Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation membership. Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation offers three levels of annual memberships. Memberships include reduced rates to tours and events, invitations to members-only events, and a one-year subscription to Cedar Hill Cemetery & Foundation's Gateway newsletter.

3.) Make a memorial gift. Remembering a family member's or friend's loved one through a memorial gift is a unique and thoughtful holiday gift. Memorial gifts made to Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation are recognized in Cedar Hill's Book of Remembrance located in the Northam Memorial Chapel and in the corresponding year's annual report. Memorial gifts can be restricted for a specific project or support the overall mission of the Foundation. Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation will inform the person for whom the holiday gift was made by sending a card detailing the memorial gift information.

4.) Arrange a private Cedar Hill Notables Tour for you and a group of your friends. This is a wonderful way to spend time with your friends while taking in the art, culture and history that Cedar Hill has to offer.

To learn more about any of these gift opportunities, please contact Wendi Fralick at Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation by calling 860-956-3311 or emailing wfralick@cedarhillcemetery.org. Thank you and happy holidays!

Thousands of Reasons to Visit Cedar Hill

Even though Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation's tours and events season has come to a conclusion for 2008, there are still thousands of reasons to visit Cedar Hill on your own. With more than 30,000 people interred at Cedar Hill, there are countless stories to be told and each monument tells us a little about each person interred here. Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation also offers self-guide tour maps guiding you through the historic sections to the final resting places of some of Cedar Hill's most notable residents, including J.P. Morgan, Katharine Hepburn, and Samuel and Elizabeth Colt. We hope you will continue to visit Cedar Hill Cemetery in the coming months, and we look forward to seeing you again during our 2009 tours and events season.

HHLT and New York Times

Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation welcomed 250 people to its annual Haunted History Lantern Tour. "Tourists" were visited by the "spirits" of Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Colt gun manufacturers Samuel and Elizabeth Colt, women's suffragist and spiritualist Isabella Beecher Hooker, the Mark Howard "Bad" Angel, and dentist Dr. Horace Wells. Each of these notables shared a piece of their lives and accomplishments with the audience. The event has received rave reviews, and we are already looking forward to next year's Haunted History Lantern Tour.

In addition, Cedar Hill Cemetery was recognized in the Sunday, October 26th edition of the New York Times: "Among the state's most beautiful cemeteries is Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, 270 acres of scenic walkways, a lake, specimen trees, jogging trails, a chapel and hillocks stippled with mausoleums, Egyptian obelisks and tombs of notables of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On its hills and byways are Charles Dudley Warner, who co-wrote with Mark Twain The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, the artist William Glackens and the poet Wallace Stevens." If you have still not visited Cedar Hill Cemetery, come and see why people love Cedar Hill Cemetery for yourself.

Even though Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation's 2008 tours and events season has come to a conclusion, we welcome visitors and offer self-guided tour maps for people interested in discovering some of Cedar Hill's extensive history. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Cedar Hill's Haunted History Lantern Tour

Join us Friday, October 24th for Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation's Annual Haunted History Lantern Tour. This is the only night during the year that Cedar Hill opens its gates to the public. Groups of 30 people will be led by lantern light through the historic sections of the Cemetery to meet some of Cedar Hill's most notable residents played by character actors. The tour will take approximately 45 minutes. Tickets will be available for $5.00 for CHCF members and $8.00 for nonmembers. Children 12 and under are free. The rain date for this event is Saturday, October 25th. Please call 860-956-3311 for additional information.

Civil War Men and Monuments Tour Tomorrow!

Civil War expert Mike McBride will lead Saturday's Civil War Men and Monuments tour. This tour will commence at the Samuel and Elizabeth Colt monument on Section 2 at 10:00 am. While Cedar Hill Cemetery did not have its first burial until 1866, after the conclusion of the Civil War, there are several Civil War soldiers interred here. Mr. McBride will share with you their stories during this tour.

Sunset Tour and Civil War Men and Monuments Tour

Join us Thursday, October 2 for our Cedar Hill Sunset Tour and Saturday, October 4 for our Civil War Men and Monuments tour.

Led by Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation's Director of Development Wendi Fralick, the Cedar Hill Sunset Tour will begin at the flagpole at the end of the entranceway drive at 6:00 pm. Ms. Fralick will lead you through Cedar Hill Cemetery's historic sections and introduce you to some of Cedar Hill's most notable residents, including Dr. Horace Wells, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, financier J.P. Morgan and actress Katharine Hepburn.

Civil War expert Mike McBride will lead Saturday's Civil War Men and Monuments tour. This tour will commence from the flagpole at the end of the entranceway drive at 10:00 am. While Cedar Hill Cemetery did not have its first burial until 1866, after the conclusion of the Civil War, there are several Civil War soldiers interred here. Mr. McBride will share with you their stories during this tour.

The weather for both of these events is expected to be perfect. With these being two of Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation's three remaining tours and events for the 2008 season, we hope you will join us.