On This Spot: 308 Nelson Avenue

John Bevan’s map (circa 1850) locates 308 Nelson on part of Saratoga’s first cemetery. Originally named the Sadler Cemetery after the land’s donor Seth Sadler, it was also referred to as “First Cemetery”, “Peter’s Cemetery” and in the 1870’s as “Nelson Street Cemetery.” Former long time city Mayor Addison Mallery wrote to our city historian describing ‘Peter’s Cemetery’. He said, “When I was a youngster we played on what was known as Peter’s Cemetery. It halfway down the hill on Nelson Avenue. Occasionally we would find a bone.” The property bordered land owned by J. R. Peter’s thus some referred to the land as “Peter’s Cemetery.”

In a city graced with colorfully painted Victorian houses boasting wide wrap around porches, my cedar shake bungalow appears to offer little historical significance. My family has owned the property since 1964 and until recently my thoughts were, “keep moving, nothing to see here.” I certainly didn’t expect any local or national historical significance for such a basic looking structure. I encourage those of you with similar feelings to look deeper into the history of the place you call home. The results may surprise you.

My parents purchased 308 Nelson Avenue in 1964 from then high school principal, John Sexton. Their deed outlined our parcel of land as “beginning at the southwest corner of the burying ground on Nelson Street (now Nelson Avenue…).”  My parents never gave much thought to this description and filed the deed away.

Instead, we embraced the large backyard, tried to teach my mother how to navigate the steep hilly driveway while we kids overlooked the lack of a flat sidewalk to play hopscotch on. Our house is located at the crest of the hill on Nelson Avenue heading down to High Rock Spring. Little did we realize that these topographical features had played a key role in the history of our family homestead.

When my father, Richard Stone moved to his funeral home at 628 North Broadway in 1984, my husband and I took over the family home.

Beginnings of the house - First FHA Mortgage

The Federal Housing Administration was created in 1934 to facilitate construction and mortgages of houses after the Great Depression. Nationwide, 2,600 FHA mortgages were granted on June 15, 1935. The first home in Saratoga County to be started under the newly formed administration was our house. Mildred and John Sexton were proud recipients of an FHA loan to build a six-room bungalow at 308 Nelson Avenue. Their groundbreaking ceremony was attended by numerous city and county dignitaries breaking ground with red, white and blue beribboned silver spades. News articles and photographs documented the momentous occasion.

The proud new owners quickly went to work on the sand-filled, neglected lot. Gardens and a grass lawn were planted.  Original resident Elizabeth Sexton Weiss described her intrigue as she watched a man her father hired walking around the yard with a divining stick. Although city water was available, the Sextons then dug a well in the basement with the idea of pure water. “My job was to pump water for morning coffee. Was told it made the BEST coffee,” recalls Elizabeth. The 88-year-old who recently made a pilgrimage from Cambridge, Massachusetts to visit her childhood home. 

Mr. Sexton was the principal at the High School conveniently located a few blocks away on Lake Avenue. He and his wife raised their four children in the red with white trim home featuring a flagpole in the Northwest corner of the property. One year, high school students pranked Mr. Sexton by setting his beloved flagpole on fire. It survived and still stands today.

Sadler Cemetery aka Nelson Street Cemetery 1765-1878

The Sextons also disregarded the burying grounds descriptor in their deed.

Neighborhood lore was that our land had been a Native American burial ground.  I incorrectly assumed this was true and believed this was the burying grounds referred to on our deed.

After all, we were in close proximity to the High Rock Spring where Native Americans gathered and even brought Sir William Johnson in 1771 to cure him with the waters.

The well-researched Chronicles of Saratoga by Evelyn Barrett Britten mentioned a cemetery in her chapter “Burying Ground Disappears; Seth Sadler gave land in Late 1700s.” Her short piece spurred more questions than answers. However, it lead me to Greenridge Cemetery. Carol Waldron, Greenridge’s Administrative Assistant, presented me with a binder on our city’s first cemetery- the Sadler Cemetery located on Nelson Street (later renamed Avenue), the cemetery referenced in our deed. 

I excitedly read the binder’s contents. The hill that plagued my hopscotch attempts proved to be unstable for a burial ground.  An account of boys coming across a skull on the Nelson Avenue hill on their way to school captured my imagination. The school Superintendent confirmed it as a human skull. What other stories unfolded on this plot of land? How and why would a cemetery be moved? Wouldn’t people be outraged? Basic facts about the cemetery were limited: the Sadler family donated the land in the late 1700s; 67 people were buried there-the first of whom was Fern Wadsworth, a visitor to the nearby High Rock Spring in 1785 ; the most famous was President Rutherford B. Hayes’ grandfather, Roger Birchard.

I searched the city historian’s records and the Saratoga Room for information on the Sadler Cemetery, but facts were limited. By chance I typed “Nelson Street Cemetery” into the Fulton History website and miraculously 24 articles from 1877 and 1878 appeared, answering many of my questions.

Indeed, permission to move the graves had been granted. A special session of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors was called on July 6, 1877 to ask for “authorization to remove the bodies interred in the Nelson Street Cemetery to some proper cemetery grounds.” Notices were published advising relatives and representatives “you have 30 days in which to remove the bodies of which you are the representatives.” Ads appeared for “written proposals to buy the land and remove the remains from the Nelson Street Cemetery.”

The process was not without controversy. William E. Stone protested “Our graveyards ought to be venerated as holy ground.” Another newspaper account of the relocation process described a “place that had been so neglected for years” and felt it was no wonder that those in the area would have “desired the removal of the remains from there.”

Before dismantling the cemetery, a complete account of the headstone inscriptions was done by historian enthusiast Cornelius Durkee. However, no one seemed to accurately record where the remains actually ended up. Britten stated there was no record of the whereabouts of President Hayes’ grandfather, Roger Birchard. Thanks to ancestry.com, it is documented that he was moved to the family plot in Wilmington, Vermont. 

I continue to be fascinated by the stories of those who have shared the land I live on. It will inspire me to continue researching what transpired on Nelson St. from 1785-1900.

More importantly I hope my story will inspire readers to see what happened “on this spot” they call home. Dive into the internet or hire the Saratoga Preservation Foundation to do a written history of your home. Our area is so rich with history, you never know what you may find!