Yale Daily News

The outrageousness of proposals to desecrate the Grove Street Cemetery surpass belief! It is one of only two cemeteries in the U.S. on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the first private nonprofit cemetery in the world. It is a place of unique historical importance.

Under the circumstances, it is difficult to imagine that any responsible person would brand its presence as "intrusive" or seriously propose its destruction.

Interesting that no one has described the nearby university power plant -- which really is intrusive -- or the pricey rowhouses on York Square as worthy of demolition!

One simple and potentially dramatic fix would be to light the walls of the grove street cemetery at night, with light washing either up or down the walls. That way the pathways could also be lit, and the sense of walking by a dark, forboding stone wall would be minimized. It would also make those relatively isolated pathways much safer.

I haven't heard any proposals to touch the cemetery, let alone desecrate it. But keep in mind that the moving of cemeteries has plenty of precedents, prominently including the removal of New Haven's burial ground from the Green to Grove Street. Jesus said, 'let the dead bury the dead' to which William Sloane Coffin once added 'and not the living' meaning that the living shouldn't govern their lives by what they think the dead would want. Moving this cemetery is highly unlikely and certainly not desirable in the abstract, but I expect that the fiduciaries responsible for the cemetery would listen to a well thought-through proposal that addressed not only its removal but its relocation and the reconstruction of this beautiful landmark and consider a proposal in its entirety. A quick look at a map of the Yale campus leaves no doubt the advantage to Yale of a move. But the cemetery trustees would need to see a net benefit to the cemetery and the community it serves, and it would certainly take a lot to overcome the obvious negatives.

Now, why lift all those bodies? It's a Yale and New Haven landmark... The mere suggestion of this shows a lack of respect by Yale's authorities for New Haven's unique history... Shame on you.

"It is the first private nonprofit cemetery in the world" - just wondering, is that true, doesnt seem likely.

also, I think the University is WAY to set on using the space beyond the cemetery. There are spaces (not together) throughout downtown proper that could host the two new colleges including residential buildings owned by the University.

The people in the cemetery are long dead. If Yale decides the land is useful, Yale should be able to use it - the dead are too dead to care.

Why can't they build on stilts above the cemetary? That's what the new museum of the Acropolis in Athens by architect Bernard Tschumi is.

Maybe instead of focusing on mass-exhumation the negotiations might instead be discussing making the cemetary a more open space that's not so dark and forboding. Allowing a brightly-lit walkway right down the middle of the cemetary (where there's already a road), through the front gate to an inviting Beineke plaza entrance would help integrate the new site (and add an interesting university thoroughfare).

Science majors have been walking far more distant places than the corner of Prospect and Trumbull for years, and to be honest the walk to WLH will be shorter than Pierson's. The area in question has abundant space for the colleges and many future expansions, and it could quickly become as much a part of the university as Cross Campus with student centers, study spaces, dining halls, (bubble tea?) etc. If science classes were held in WLH (or even Lanman Wright) and non-science classes were taught on science hill, this would help even more. Yale is running out of room to expand, and this project would open up a huge set of possibilities.

"Hey where are we meeting up before going to lunch? By Sheffield's tomb or Eli Whitney's mausoleum?"