Gideon Putnam Burying Ground, Saratoga Springs

The Gideon Putnam Burying Ground, located on South Franklin Street in Saratoga Springs, is a small yet historically significant cemetery dating back to the early 19th century. Spanning 1.1 acres, it contains 161 marked graves of residents buried between 1812 and 1871, including the city’s founder, Gideon Putnam.

Gideon Putnam, a Connecticut native, arrived in Saratoga Springs in 1789 and soon saw its potential as a resort destination. He built Putnam's Tavern near Congress Spring in 1802 and laid out the city's grid plan in 1805, including a community burial ground. After his fatal construction accident in 1812, he became the cemetery’s first interment, though it remained primarily a Putnam family plot. In 1835, the family transferred the site to the village.

Burials increased in the 1830s and 1840s as it became a public graveyard, but by 1844, a larger cemetery was established west of the village, leading to a decline in new interments. The last recorded burial took place in 1871. Over time, the cemetery suffered neglect, with overgrown vegetation and toppled headstones. A survey in 1876 documented 250 inscriptions, but due to ongoing deterioration, only 89 graves were identifiable by 1922.

Restoration efforts in the 1980s revived the site, securing and maintaining it. Today, the cemetery features marble and granite headstones, some adorned with 19th-century funerary motifs, and the Putnam family plot, marked by a fieldstone wall and wrought iron gate. Gideon Putnam and his wife’s graves are distinguished by obelisks. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, the Gideon Putnam Burying Ground remains an enduring testament to the city’s founder and early settlers, preserved amidst a now-residential neighborhood just outside Saratoga Springs' historic districts.