{"nrhp_refnum":"04001053","name":"Vale Cemetery and Vale Park","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"907 State St., Nott Terrace","address_restricted":false,"city":"Schenectady","county":"Schenectady County","state":"NY","lat":42.80762074250006,"lon":-73.92912118968576,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-09-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Landscape Architecture","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 100-acre rural cemetery and adjoining city park near the center of Schenectady, New York, established in 1857 along the ravine of Coehorn Creek and expanded through 1911. Vale Park, the former northwest portion of the cemetery, was sold to the city in 1973.","why_significant":"The property is argued to be a highly intact example of Picturesque rural cemetery design, laid out by surveyor and landscape designer Burton A. Thomas. It also reflects Schenectady's growth from a river settlement into an industrial city, through its sections, family plots, and monuments. It holds a rare collection of colonial-era gravestones and examples of funerary art.","narrative":"Vale Cemetery and Vale Park cover about 100 acres near the center of Schenectady, New York. The cemetery opened in 1857 on 38 acres of steep, ravine-cut land along Coehorn Creek, which was poorly suited to development. Burton A. Thomas surveyed and designed it, with John Doyle supervising the landscaping. Winding carriage roads, ponds, wooded slopes, and ornamental plantings followed the rural cemetery ideal of a reflective, park-like burial ground. Land purchases extended it to its present size by 1911, adding later lawn-park and memorial-park sections. In 1973 the city acquired the abandoned northwestern portion as Vale Park. About 40,000 burials include re-interred colonial gravestones dating from around 1700, a Revolutionary War soldiers' monument, veterans' plots, a county pauper section, and family mausolea. Industrial leaders and General Electric figures such as Charles Steinmetz are buried here. The site was listed for its landscape design, funerary art, and its record of Schenectady's social and economic development.","period_of_significance":"[ca. 1700], 1857-1954","architect_builder":"Burton A. Thomas (surveyor); John Doyle (landscape gardener)","architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Vale Cemetery remains in use as the city's principal non-denominational cemetery. Vale Park is a city park. Some landscape elements are overgrown and neglected, and vandalism has damaged some monuments.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.579221-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/04001053.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001053/a14224437f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001053/a14224437f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vale_in_Fall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vale_in_Fall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321711","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_Cemetery_and_Vale_Park","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7909484"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/schenectady-county/vale-cemetery-and-vale-park-04001053/"}