Vale Cemetery Preservation Inc. is honored to be a 2025 recipient of a 2025 Arts & Culture Development grant from Schenectady County. Such grants assist us in bringing tours and other events to the community and to helping Vale preserve its history and heritage.
A sincere thank you to Schenectady County and congratulations to this year's other awardees.
Vale needs you! We're seeking volunteers to help with a variety of projects this season. If you'd like to join us for clean-up days, planting geraniums or placing flags on graves for Memorial Day, or any other tasks, please let us know. Send us an email at vale@valecemetery.org and we'll add you to our volunteer list.
Vale Cemetery is now on Instagram.
Please follow us @valecemetery
On May 4, Vale participated in the statewide Caring For Your Cemetery volunteer day, an initiative from the Division of Cemeteries. Thank you to all of the volunteers who came out to help us get the Cemetery ready for Memorial Day.
Check out photos from the event here.
This year's tours and events will include The Rural Cemetery Movement (June 5), Schenectady & The American Revolution (July 10), Giants of Industry (August 7), Schenectady & and The Civil War (September 7), and Notable Women (October 5). Details will be posted here as they become available. Also, watch our Facebook Page for updates.
Tours are $10 per person, but free for members of Vale Cemetery Preservation, Inc..
The Spring 2025 newsletter, "The Voice of Vale Cemetery," is now available for viewing and downloading.
This issue includes:Upcoming Tours & EventsCall For Old Postcards & PhotosVale and the Black Cemetery Network134th Regiment Infantry NY Volunteers at Gettysburg by Jeff AustinUrban and Community Forestry Update"Vale Remembers Walter Simpkins" by Paul Contarino"Vale Welcomes New Office Manager"
We've always been proud of our commitment to Green Burials and are one of the few cemeteries in the region accepted to the Green Burial Council.
The Dell at Vale Cemetery offers an environmentally friendly option for those who chose to be interred without the accoutrements of chemical embalming or complicated caskets. Additionally, neither insecticides or herbicides are used and mowing is kept to a minimum.A project of the late Dr. McEvoy, in cooperation with SUNY Cobleskill Agricultural and Technology College, was to use goats to reduce brush and "mow". After a brief hiatus following Dr. McEvoy's passing, the goats are back!
The death and retirement, respectively, of Bernie and Barbara McEvoy necessitates a rebirth of Vale Cemetery Preservation, Inc. Vale Cemetery Association has established a Preservation Committee to assist in that effort and, during the transition, continue the programs set up by Bernie and Barbara during their tenure. Since this is a new and evolving committee, we ask that everyone please be patient when either emailing or calling with requests. We promise to get back to you as soon as possible.
One of the first tasks of this Committee is to restore the Caretaker’s House, specifically, the portico area which has suffered some damage over the years. Another project is cleaning up and better identifying the headstones on graves in the First Reformed Plot. There are numerous Revolutionary War veterans buried in this plot and it would entail tracking down the inscriptions and then matching them with the stones. We are hoping to have this done for the American Revolution 250 in 2026.
The Spring 2024 "Voice of Vale" newsletter is available for download or viewing (2M PDF).
Find out how Vale is helping New York City during the Covid pandemic, read about Vales receiving the prestigious ACE award along with a special message from Vale's President.
On December 31st, 2023, Vale Cemetery and the greater community at large lost a beloved friend, Dr. Bernard “Bernie” McEvoy. Dr. McEvoy and his wife Barbara worked tirelessly for Vale Cemetery for over 20 years.
Their efforts saved the caretaker’s house from demolition and worked to achieve financial stability for the cemetery. He obtained grant funding from various institutions including the Wright, Carlilian, Broughton and Schenectady Foundations as well as the New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, Preservation League of New York and the Schenectady County Initiative. These grants helped to fund projects such as the paving of roads, the installation of brick pillars and wrought iron fencing, video surveillance, the placement of kiosks throughout the cemetery, a historic landscape study and the expansion of the crematory.
Vale Cemetery Preservation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and tax-deductible organization.
All content © Vale Cemetery Preservation, Inc., 2006-2024