PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has more than 3,000 cemeteries, many of them on private land and older than 100 years old.
Acknowledging the cultural value of historic cemeteries, the state House of Representatives has approved legislation that designates April 15 as Historic Cemetery Restoration and Awareness Day.
The bill was introduced by state Rep. Anthony Giarrusso, R-East Greenwich.
According to Ted Sanderson, executive director of the R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, many of the historic cemeteries were family plots on former farms.
There is no state requirement that historic cemeteries be maintained, he said, but they also are not to be destroyed or disturbed.
State law states that cities and towns regulate cemeteries. The commission’s guidelines for historic cemeteries advises that any ground-disturbing be stopped within 25 feet of a cemetery boundary.
In his bill, Giarrusso called the cemeteries “open-air museums” that convey more information than merely birth and death dates, and the names of the deceased, “but also provide a record of our state’s geographical, religious and cultural past.”
