{"nrhp_refnum":"05001536","name":"Wheatland Baptist Cemetery","other_names":["Belcoda Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"McGinnis, Belcoda and Harmon Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belcoda","county":"Monroe County","state":"NY","lat":43.02587135400006,"lon":-77.84672515099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-01-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Black","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 3.4-acre rural cemetery at the crossroads of Belcoda in the Town of Wheatland, Monroe County, New York, established in 1811, together with the adjacent site of the Belcoda Baptist Church and its 1916 commemorative boulder and plaque.","why_significant":"It is the earliest cemetery in the town of Wheatland and holds the graves of many first settlers. It is the last remnant of the vanished hamlet of Belcoda and its Baptist church, and it reflects the African-American community that formed after the Civil War. It also preserves a range of funerary art and a perimeter fence designed by regional architect Carl F. Schmidt.","narrative":"Wheatland Baptist Cemetery, also called Belcoda Cemetery, occupies a flat 3.4-acre triangle at the Belcoda crossroads in southwestern Monroe County, New York. Joseph Blackmer donated the land in 1811, the year his infant daughter Sarah Ann became the first burial. A Baptist church across the road anchored the hamlet of Belcoda until it was abandoned in 1870 and demolished in 1883. The cemetery holds early settlers such as Rawson Harmon and the Rev. Solomon Brown, whose family plot has two obelisks and a cast-iron Italianate fence. Its African-American section is tied to freed people who came from Culpeper, Virginia, after the Civil War; those buried here include the Rev. Clayton Coles and Howard Coles. Markers range from simple slate and marble stones to later granite monuments. In the 1950s, architect Carl F. Schmidt designed the board fence and arched entrance gate. A boulder with a bronze tablet marks the church site.","period_of_significance":"1811-1955","architect_builder":"Carl F. Schmidt (designer of the perimeter fence and entrance gate, 1950s)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a cemetery; stones date from 1811 to the present and are well preserved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.311524-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/05001536.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001536/d792874da0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001536/d792874da0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"DanielPenfield","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WheatlandBaptistCemeteryGravestones.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">DanielPenfield</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WheatlandBaptistCemeteryGravestones.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318973","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatland_Baptist_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7991886"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/monroe-county/wheatland-baptist-cemetery-05001536/"}