{"nrhp_refnum":"10000137","name":"Newburgh Colored Burial Ground","other_names":["Colored Burying Ground","Colored Cemetery","Western Avenue Yard","Western Avenue Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Broadway & Robinson Ave. (NY Rte. 9W)","address_restricted":false,"city":"City of Newburgh","county":"Orange County","state":"NY","lat":41.503210627000044,"lon":-74.02069109599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-03-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 19th-century African-American burial ground in the City of Newburgh, Orange County, New York, now lying beneath and around the grounds of the City Courthouse, which was built in 1908-09 as the Broadway School.","why_significant":"The site is locally significant under Criterion D for its potential to yield information about Newburgh's 19th-century African-American population, and possibly others buried there. Study of the remains and artifacts may reveal health, diet, social status, burial practices and migration patterns. It may also show how the cemetery was treated, disturbed and built over by later development.","narrative":"Beneath the lawns, walkways and parking area of the Newburgh City Courthouse lies a 19th-century burial ground used by the city's African-American community. Documents call it the Colored Burial Ground or the Western Avenue Yard, and it appears to have been active from about 1832 to about 1867. Its precise origins and ownership remain unclear. Remains were disturbed repeatedly, during the construction of Robinson Avenue in 1873, during clearing of an oilcloth factory around 1905, and during building of the Broadway School in 1908-09. Archaeological work in 2008 identified at least 110 sets of remains, many in orderly east-west rows, and some lie under the courthouse foundations. No gravestones or landscape features survive. The site is considered important for what continuing study of the graves, coffin hardware, clothing and jewelry may reveal about health, diet, social status, burial customs and migration, and about how the community's dead were later treated.","period_of_significance":"c. 1832-c. 1867","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["D"],"status_note":"The burial ground has no above-ground markers. Over 100 graves were found west and northwest of the courthouse, and the site is used as courthouse grounds and parking.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:48.704035-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/10000137.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000137/ea7228c11e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000137/ea7228c11e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewburghNY_CityCourtBackSideWithParkingLot.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Magicpiano</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:NewburghNY_CityCourtBackSideWithParkingLot.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320708","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburgh_Colored_Burial_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14707090"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/orange-county/newburgh-colored-burial-ground-10000137/"}