St. Mary's Cemetery

St. Mary's Cemetery

Physical address: 3825 Jordan Road, Skaneateles, New York 13152

Mailing Address: c/o St. Mary's of the Lake Church, 10 West Austin Street, Skaneateles, NY 13152

History:

On October 16, 1869, by a warranty deed, John Rossiter and Ann, his wife, for a consideration of $1,000.00, conveyed to Rt. Rev. John J. Conroy, Bishop of Albany, a plot of land of about 11 acres, just north of the village, on Jordan Street to be used for a cemetery. This deed was recorded on October 26, 1869 in Onondaga County Clerk’s Office. This land was blessed by Rev. Dr. O’Hara of Syracuse on October 31, 1869. In November of 1869, the first burial took place, an infant with the name of Roach.

Several more acres of land were purchased again from John Rossiter and his wife on June 15, 1897. The cost for this addition which extended the cemetery west to Railroad Street (now Fennell Street) was $350.

A third parcel of land, north of the original cemetery, was secured on August 27, 1927 when 4 ½ acres were purchased by Father Curtin from Raymond Church and wife for $800.

The cemetery vault was constructed in the autumn of 1925 at a cost of $3,200.

In 1978, Henry McLaughlin explained in a letter to Father Casey how the vault was built:

“I remember when Father Curtin decided to build a vault at the entrance at St. Mary’s Cemetery. Father Curtin hired me (Henry McLaughlin) and Pete Wickham and Ed Finnerty who were each stone masons. The men of St. Bridget’s Church were asked to go after work and super to an old woolen mill that was in ruins at Willow Glenn and truck the old limestone to the site of the proposed vault. At 6 AM I would pick up Peter Wickham and Ed Finnerty in my old 1917 Model T Ford touring car and we would drive to Skaneateles to St. Mary’s Cemetery where after we laid a concrete foundation, the limestones were laid in the cement. As the courses of limestone got higher, we erected a block and tackle and rope so that attaching the rope to a huge limestone and the other end of the rope to my Ford car, I would raise the huge limestones up to the scaffold we had built by pulling the rope with my Ford so that we finally completed building the vault”.

CEMETERY RULES AND MAINTENANCE:

Please follow the CEMETERY RULES:

At the cemetery, teamwork between maintenance staff and family members is imperative for the care for your loved ones final resting place together.

a couple common questions:

Isn’t the cemetery responsible for maintenance of gravesites?
Cemeteries provide basic property maintenance such as mowing the grass, removing large branches, and maintaining the roads. However, most cemeteries will not perform individual gravesite tasks, such as weeding a site, maintaining the turf, cleaning headstones, mulching plantings, or trimming and edging grass. It is not practical for their landscaping crew to provide the level of attention that many families desire for their loved one’s final resting place.

I paid for perpetual care when I purchased the grave lots, so why do I need to do grave tending too?
Perpetual care (also known as endowed or permanent care) funds are used for general maintenance and repair of cemetery grounds. The family is responsible for caring for the headstone and keeping the gravesite neat and clean.

CEMETERY PRICING as of September 1, 2023: CLICK HERE

St. Mary's of the Lake Roman Catholic Church