The eighth annual Hampton Cemetery Walk will take place Sunday at the Hampton Cemetery, giving visitors a chance to learn more about local history through presentations and performances highlighting individuals buried there.
Organizers say attendees will learn about several selected individuals buried in the cemetery while also being entertained by the Franklin County Arts Council.
The event will feature three trolleys and one walking tour. Admission is $10 and Cemetery Board member Paul Flint says proceeds from the annual walk help support ongoing restoration and repair efforts at the cemetery’s two mausoleums.
“The south cemetery mausoleum under the family name of Schnee is falling into serious disrepair,” Flint says. “Before we could repair, we need to get permission from the state. It’s almost a three-year process to make sure that there’s no heirs that still have entitlement to that mausoleum. Now, it is in bad shape, not even accessible at this point. So we’ve passed the deadline and it’s time to start moving on the project. The 150 years that the cemetery has been there, the hillside continues to slide to the west off of that road that goes up toward the unknown soldier. So the city wants to put a retaining wall there that will hold the hillside in better shape.”
Flint says the projects on the mausoleums will begin sometime this summer. He adds that funds raised through the event also help with the general upkeep and maintenance of the cemetery’s 32 sections.
“The board of directors is a panel of nine members and then each of the sections are adopted by a citizen and that person is responsible for taking a look at repairs that may need to be done on stones in their section or pick up sticks or if there’s any litter,” Flint says. “That’s one of the things they agree to when they adopt a section. All in all we have somewhere between 20 and 25 active members that do the volunteer work to take care of the cemetery the best that we can.”
The event is organized by the Friends of the Hampton Cemetery and will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the cemetery’s north entrance. Refreshments will be served.
More information below
Full interview with Paul Flint below
