Old Center Cemetery
Location of Old Center Cemetery. Photo credit: Andrew Rana, Hall High School student.
If you are in town, we suggest you tour the Old Center Cemetery. Located at 30 North Main Street in West Hartford, the cemetery highlights the important, the unique, and the not-so-well-known residents of the town from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, offering a glimpse into lives long forgotten.
All of the people buried in the Old Center Cemetery have stories to tell. For some, the story is incomplete, and their lives will remain a secret. For others, it is possible to recreate their lives so fully that it is almost as if the story never ended. Hopefully, as a result of this tour, you have gained greater knowledge of and interest in the history of the town and the people who populated it. Much information can be found through careful study and interpretation of the gravestones themselves.
Additional information is available by appointment in the library at the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society, located at 227 South Main Street, West Hartford.
NEW! Virtual Tour
Experience the history of Old Center Cemetery through a self-guided virtual tour created with QR code technology. Visitors can scan QR codes located at the entrance and follow the numbered grave markers throughout the cemetery to instantly access stories, historical information, photographs, and points of interest directly on their mobile devices. This interactive tour offers an engaging way to explore the cemetery's rich heritage at your own pace while learning about the individuals, events, and landmarks that shaped the community.
This virtual tour was created by Andrew Rana, a 9th-grade student at Hall High School and a Scout in BSA Troop 163. Andrew created the QR code and installed numbered markers at the tour stops as part of his Eagle Scout Service project, making it easier for visitors to learn about our town's history. Andrew won the town-wide Spelling Bee championship in 2025. He plays Euphonium with the concert band, sings in the Bass and Acafella choir, and is a member of the Hall Robotics club and the Westmoor 4-H. As a resident of West Hartford, Andrew enjoys all that our town has to offer and hopes to pursue a career as an engineer.
Click on the image below to start the virtual tour!
Download Brochure
Also available for download is West Hartford Town Historian Mary M. Donohue's “A Self-Guided Tour of Notables & Memorials."
The Old Center Burying Yard self-guided tour brochure invites visitors to explore one of West Hartford's oldest historic sites, established in 1719 as the community's first cemetery. The tour highlights notable residents, ministers, Revolutionary War-era figures, early settlers, artisans, and formerly enslaved individuals whose lives helped shape the town's history.
Using a map and numbered stops, visitors can discover significant gravestones, family burial plots, memorials, and examples of early American gravestone art. The brochure also explains the cemetery's history, the evolution of burial practices, the symbolism found on gravestones, and the stories behind prominent families buried there.
Featured stops include the graves of Noah Webster's parents, Revolutionary War figures, and early church leaders, as well as Bristow, a formerly enslaved African man whose story is commemorated on the Connecticut Freedom Trail. Visitors can also learn about the cemetery's historic monuments, artistic stone carvings, and the preservation efforts that help protect this important cultural resource.
The brochure serves as a guide to understanding the people, events, and traditions that contributed to the development of West Hartford from its colonial beginnings through the nineteenth century.
Click on the image above to open and download