{"nrhp_refnum":"13000450","name":"Hillside Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"NY 237 & S. Holley Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clarendon","county":"Orleans County","state":"NY","lat":43.21856566750006,"lon":-78.02797856887547,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2013-06-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A private rural cemetery of about 52 acres on the south slope of a hill in the southeast part of Middletown, Orange County, New York, laid out in 1861 from plans by Calvert Vaux.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a largely intact mid-nineteenth-century rural cemetery design and an early landscape work by Calvert Vaux, expressing the Picturesque aesthetic through winding paths, ponds, plantings and planned views. It is also significant for its collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century funerary art. It is described as the only rural cemetery in Middletown.","narrative":"Hillside Cemetery occupies about 52 acres on a south-facing hill in southeast Middletown, Orange County, New York. The Hillside Cemetery Association formed in 1860, bought farmland, and hired Calvert Vaux to plan a rural cemetery. Work began in spring 1861 using engineering drawings by Otis Chickering, and the grounds were consecrated on August 8, 1861. Winding roads and paths follow the hilly terrain and divide it into lobed burial sections. A tributary of Monhagen Brook crosses the site, and Vaux's plan added two ponds, of which one remains and the other is largely drained. His observation tower was never built. The grounds hold mausolea, obelisks and statues, including Egyptian Revival forms, figures of Hope, and sarcophagus-style monuments. A ca.1930 Gothic Revival stone office building stands at the entrance. The cemetery is valued as a largely intact Picturesque landscape and a record of Victorian funerary art, and as Middletown's only rural cemetery.","period_of_significance":"1861-1944","architect_builder":"Vaux, Calvert, Architect","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still an active cemetery; the ca.1930 stone office building was renovated in 1990 and now serves as a gate and grounds keeper house. The original layout of roads, paths and plots is largely intact.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:47.851126-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/94001027.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000450/6641c76dad-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000450/6641c76dad-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Steven Hamsness","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hillside_Cemetery_Marker.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Hamsness</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:Hillside_Cemetery_Marker.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75320672","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_Cemetery_(Clarendon,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22022684"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/orleans-county/hillside-cemetery-13000450/"}