From the center
of town, take Main Street/Route 5 south for about one mile and Woodlawn
Cemetery will be on the left. Woodlawn Cemetery has been in continuous
use from 1801 until the present. Woodlawn Cemetery is spread over several
acres, and has three main areas, which were put into use at different times.
The streets within the cemetery are logically arranged with the letter
streets going east from and perpendicular to Main Street/Route 5 and the
numbered avenues going in a north/south direction parallel to Main Street/Route
5.
A Street starts near the vault and goes at a slight angle to the right. B Street is next, and C Street is the main entrance. D Street, which does not have outside access, is the southern boundary of the cemetery. The numbered avenues start with 1st Avenue closest to Main Street/Route 5, and 5th Avenue close to the back boundary. These streets and avenues are usually poorly marked, if at all.
Original
Cemetery
The old part cemetery has
burials from 1801 and an occasional one in the 1990s. The old part of the
cemetery is adjacent to Main Street/Route 5 from the vault south about
to halfway between B and C Streets, and from C Street south to D Street,
which is the southern boundary, and goes back to the first cross street,
which is 1st Avenue. Most of the early settlers are buried here, including
Susan Adams, whose tombstone reads, "She was the first person to be buried
in this Yard;" Ezekiel Merrill, first settler of Andover; Mollocket, local
Indian woman who helped the early settlers; and other early settlers and
Revolutionary War veterans.
Main
Cemetery
The main cemetery has burials
generally from the late 1800s to the present. The main cemetery covers
the area from A Street on the north (adjacent to the vault), to D Street
(the southern boundary) and from 1st Avenue to the eastern boundary, with
a small section fronting on Main Street/Route 5 between C and D Streets,
back to 1st Avenue. This area generally has Section and Lot numbers, but
there are some lots in Sections 1 to 4 that are not numbered.
Cemetery
Annex
The lots in the Cemetery
Annex are laid out in five rows, which start at Main Street/Route 5 and
extend to the eastern boundary of the cemetery. Row One is closest to the
vault and Row Five is along the cemetery's northern boundary. Rows Two
through Five have a consistent numbering system, but Row One has some odd
numbers because of the curve in "A" Street which separates the Annex from
the older part of the cemetery.
Copyright 2002 by Robert A. Spidell, All Rights Reserved