Monday, May 25, 2020

Hall Memorial Chapel

Located next to Route 8, at the entrance to Riverside Cemetery, is a small Victorian chapel in need of repair. Built during the 1880s, the Hall Memorial Chapel was actively used for funeral services until 1971. The Friends of Riverside Cemetery is currently trying to raise money for the building's restoration, saving it from destruction and allowing it to be put back into use as a community resource.

Photograph by Lisa Hendricks, Wikimedia Commons, 2013


Waterbury's first burial ground was located on Grand Street, where the Silas Bronson Library is today. By the 1840s, as Waterbury was transforming itself from a small farming community to a growing industrial city, it became clear that a new cemetery was needed. In 1850, the Riverside Cemetery Association was formed.