Featured Gravestone – Cornelia Decker

Section:  St. Peter’s Episcopal

Material: White marble

Misc.:  Edges of stone are not visible and stone is partially embedded in the earth.  Visible portions are in very good condition with some staining, but little erosion.

Inscription:  In Memory of Cornelia, wife of Myron A. Decker, died April 28, 1853.

Cornelia was the wife of Myron A. Decker, a well-known manufacturer of pianos.  He was a founder of the piano-making company Decker & Sons.  Around the time of Cornelia’s death, he worked at the famous Albany piano company, Boardman & Gray. He later relocated to New York City.  Cornelia is not listed in the Common Council’s inventory of graves.

The State Street Burying Grounds – 1857

Detail of an 1857 maps of the City of Albany showing the old State Street Burying Grounds where the majority of the Church Grounds graves were previously located.

Many of the streets shown still exist, but under new names;  Lydius Street to left  is now Madison Avenue and The Bowery at the right side of map is Central Avenue.  Turnpike in the lower left corner refers to modern Delaware Avenue and Turnpike to the right of the burying grounds on the map is now Western Avenue.  Knox Street still exists, but the portion extending through the park is a promenade (sometimes called the Knox Street Pedestrian Mall) lined with benches and trees.  Snipe Street is long gone.

Another burial ground can be seen near the  upper right of this map detail where South Robin Street intersects with the Turnpike.  Now a covered by the State University’s downtown campus, this was a cemetery for the Orphan Asylum (which later relocated to a site near the Almshouse on New Scotland Avenue at Academy Road).  Later, the Albany Rural Cemetery set aside a lot on the North Ridge for the burial of orphans.

The full map can be viewed here.

The Society of Friends

This granite monument near the south side of the Church Grounds marks the lot set aside for The Society of Friends.  According to the Special Report published by the Common Council at the time of the removal of all graves from the State Street Burying Grounds, the Friends required “not less than one-fourth of an acre for the future want of that Society.”

An inscription on the lower part of the monument reads, “Be still and know that I am God.”

This section of the Church Grounds contains some upright stones, a rarity in this overall section.   It is one of the smallest lots in the Church Grounds with only fourteen burials recorded in the Common Council inventory.   Surnames here include Allen, Andrews, Adams, Emes, Follett, Gould, Gurney, Lossing, Smith, Spencer, and Tallman.  The earliest grave was from 1815 and the latest from 1859.