Old Burying Ground
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The Old Burying Ground is an historic cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is located at the intersection of Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road in Downtown Halifax. It was founded in 1749, the same year as the settlement, as the town's first burial ground. It was originally non-denominational and for several decades was the burial place for all Haligonians. In 1793 it was turned over to the Anglican St. Paul's Church. The cemetery was closed in 1843, with the Camp Hill Cemetery used for subsequent burials. The site steadily declined until the 1980s when it was restored and refurbished by the Old Burying Ground Foundation, which now maintains the site.
Over the decades some 12,000 people were interred in the Old Burial Ground. Today there are only some 1,200 headstones, some having been lost and many others being buried with no headstone. Many notable residents are buried in the cemetery, including British General Robert Ross, who was killed in the War of 1812. The most prominent monument is the Welsford-Parker Monument, a memorial standing at the entrance to the cemetery commemorating the Crimean War. The memorial was built in 1860 and is named after two Haligonians, Major Welsford and Captain Parker, who both died in the battle at Redan in 1855.
