Restoration of Tombstones at the Old Burying Ground

Cleaning the headstones in Sag Harbor

The Sag Harbor Historical Museum, acting as steward of the Old Burying Ground on behalf of Sag Harbor Village, sponsors public tours and improves the historic site through a program of stone conservation and treatment. Twenty Revolutionary War patriots’ headstones were restored with grants from the Southampton chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation in 2021, and twelve Beebee family headstones will be restored with a grant from the RDLG Foundation and a private donor in 2025.

The twelve Beebee headstones were damaged when the Old Whalers’ Church steeple was toppled and fell on them in the Hurricane of 1938. The memorial stone of Capt. Lester Beebee, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, is among the group to be repaired and treated, which includes that of his wife Bethia and other family members.