Did You Know Binghamton Moved an Entire Cemetery in 1907?

I love finding pieces of Binghamton history that make me stop and look at the city a little differently. The kind of stories that make you realize there’s so much that happened here long before today’s streets, homes, and businesses took their place.

This is definitely one of those stories.

More than a century ago, Binghamton had a City Cemetery on Eldredge Street. It was eventually closed; more than 1,300 remains were moved to Glenwood Cemetery, and the old burial ground slowly disappeared from public view.

It’s tempting to turn a story like this into a spooky “what’s buried beneath Binghamton?” mystery. But the real history is much more interesting. It’s a story about a growing city, a neglected cemetery, and the difficult decision to move people from their original resting place.

Binghamton’s First Burial Grounds: From Court House Hill to Eldredge Street

Binghamton’s earliest burials weren’t all in one large cemetery. A 19th-century history of Broome County says the city’s first burying ground was on Court House Hill. Churches also had smaller burial grounds of their own.

The same historic account of Broome County says the old Eldredge Street Cemetery was laid out before becoming known as Binghamton Cemetery in 1841. At the time, it was a proper cemetery with burial lots, markers, and families who expected their loved ones to remain there.

But Binghamton was changing quickly. The city was growing, and the cemetery eventually found itself in the middle of a community that needed more room.

Why Binghamton Closed Its Eldredge Street Cemetery in 1906

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, the old City Cemetery had fallen into disrepair. Newspaper accounts from the time describe years of debate over what to do with it.

A detailed local history that includes images of those old newspaper reports says city leaders approved a measure in 1906 to close the burial ground and turn the property into residential lots. Families and descendants were given time to arrange private removals, while the city prepared to move the remaining burials. You can read that research on Binghamton City Cemetery and Glenwood Cemetery here.

It’s hard to imagine being a family member at the time. You may have had relatives buried there for decades, only to learn their graves would have to be moved because the surrounding city had changed.

1,300 Remains Moved: The 1907 Relocation to Glenwood Cemetery

In the winter of 1907, an estimated 1,330 remains were removed from the old cemetery and taken to Glenwood Cemetery, according to the historic research compiled from Binghamton newspaper coverage.

Workers placed the remains in pine boxes and transported them through Binghamton by horse-drawn wagons. It was a huge undertaking, especially in winter, when workers reportedly had to dig through deep frost to reach the graves.

Some of the removals were straightforward. Others weren’t.

The account says records from the old cemetery had been poorly kept, and some graves were difficult to identify. Workers found missing records, empty graves, and remains that couldn’t be matched to specific names.

That’s an important part of this story. The people moved from the old City Cemetery weren’t just a number. They were early Binghamton residents, families, and neighbors whose identities weren’t always preserved as carefully as they should have been.

What Happened to Binghamton’s Lost Eldredge Street Cemetery?

The former cemetery site on Eldredge Street is no longer a cemetery. The property was gradually overtaken by development, which is why it’s easy to live in Binghamton today and never realize a burial ground once stood there.

That doesn’t mean anyone should assume there are unknown graves beneath every building or street near the old site. The historical record of the cemetery’s removal shows a large relocation took place, but it also shows the old cemetery’s records were complicated and imperfect.

What we can say for certain is that the old City Cemetery was once an important part of Binghamton’s early history, and more than 1,300 remains were reinterred at Glenwood Cemetery in 1907.

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The Legacy of Binghamton’s Forgotten Municipal Cemetery

Old cemeteries are more than rows of stones. They hold the stories of the people who built a community before any of us were here.

Binghamton’s City Cemetery may no longer look like a cemetery, but it shouldn’t be forgotten. Its story reminds us that cities change, streets change, and even places we pass without a second thought can have a much deeper history underneath them.

For me, that’s what makes local history so fascinating. You never know when something you’ve driven past a hundred times might have a story worth stopping for.