The historic Brooks cemetery at New Point is the target of a cemetery preservation day to be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27.

The Fairfield Foundation in Gloucester is coordinating the effort to clear the cemetery of trees and brush and to search for lost grave sites. The earliest stones at the cemetery, located on a private lane off Route 600 near the New Point Observatory, date from the 1820s; burials continued into the 1940s.

The cemetery lies in the New Point Comfort Natural Area Preserve, and the nearby boardwalk provides views of Mobjack and Chesapeake Bay, salt marshes, and in the distance, the 1805 New Point Comfort Lighthouse. 

The cemetery is part of a “long-overlooked archaeological site,” according to the Fairfield Foundation. The site includes the graveyard and two probably house sites, the foundation said.

This work is made possible by a Threatened Sites Grant from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, and will pave the way f...