Commemorating the Town's Black Cemetery

Putnam Valley residents who were not able to attend the unveiling on Juneteenth of a historic marker for the Larksburg Cemetery missed something special. Deputy County Historian Sallie Sypher gave a detailed account of the history of Sumner Lark, a civil rights lawyer who established the cemetery in the 1920s as part of a Black summer colony he developed on Barger Street. Sypher was followed by several speakers representing the legacy of Bishop Robert Larson, a prominent Harlem religious leader who continued to develop the community and cemetery after Lark's death. Larson and Lark are among about 30 congregants buried in the cemetery.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by county, state and town officials, as well as town residents and leaders of the Putnam Valley Historical Society. The overwhelming sentiment expressed on this federal holiday was one of unity, both by the mostly white government officials and residents who were present at the event and by the mostly Black visitors from Brooklyn, Queens and beyond who seemed genuinely delighted by the town's initiative to honor the memory of two lesser-known but seminal religious and political leaders from their community.

After the unveiling of the marker, which apparently took more than a year and many letters and forms to secure approval for, Highway Superintendent Shawn Keeler placed the marker at the cemetery on Barger Street.