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Forty Clarkson University athletes from the cross country, Nordic skiing and swim teams participated in the spring clean-up at Bayside Cemetery on April 16. The student volunteers picked up debris (mostly tree limbs that had fallen down over the winter). Bayside’s grounds crew was here to help as well, picking up the piles. The grounds are looking great thanks to the Clarkson students!

Bayside Cemetery has been awarded a grant of $32,900 from the Rock Charitable Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation to support the preservation of cemetery gates and towers. "We are very grateful to the Rock Charitable Fund and the Northern New York Community Foundation for their support of this historically vital project," said Mark Lee, president of the Bayside Cemetery Association board of trustees. "Their generous support will enable us to preserve this legacy of the early development of Potsdam." The Rock Charitable Fund was established at the Northern New York Community Foundation in 2019 through a bequest from St. Lawrence County resident and retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Marjorie J. Rock, who passed away in February 2017 at the age of 96.

A 7 News story about the efforts to restore our historic Potsdam sandstone entrance gates and towers featured Trustee President Mark Lee and Trustee John Omohundro.

Volunteers from Clarkson University’s Delta Upsilon fraternity straightened up a group of Bayside’s oldest headstones on October 1, 2022. The marble, sandstone, and limestone markers were mostly imported from older cemeteries in downtown Potsdam in the 1800s. The stones had tipped and sagged over the years because they were sunk into the soil before concrete was common. The brothers reinforced their work by packing crushed stone around the markers’ bases. The cemetery appreciates the brothers' work. Individuals or organizations interested in volunteering at Bayside can email info@baysidepotsdam.org or call 315-265-3790.

Potsdam Public Museum Director Mimi Van Deusen conducted a tour of Bayside Cemetery in Potsdam on October 2, 2022. Visitors are welcome daily in the cemetery.

The Bayside Cemetery Association has launched its spring donor appeal. A plan has been developed to restore the historic Potsdam sandstone entrance gates and towers. The plan involves repointing and sealing all top-facing surfaces and ornaments above the entrance towers, and re-mortaring the stones of the towers. Today, the gate and towers are shrouded with protective coverings awaiting the next step. With help from a grant by the Rock Charitable Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation and a generous donation by Clarkson University, Bayside has nearly a third of the funding necessary to continue this project. Donations are needed and can be made online at baysidepotsdam.org/donate or by check to Bayside Cemetery, PO Box 491, Potsdam, NY 13676.

Ten Princeton elm trees were planted over Easter weekend at Bayside Cemetery. The trees are a variety found to have resistance to Dutch elm disease and acclimated to the North Country climate. They were purchased locally by Bayside from St. Lawrence Nurseries, run by Connor and Allyssa Hardiman. The trees were planted by Bayside Trustee President Mark Lee and his wife, Abby Lee.

Bayside Cemetery is grateful to be the recipient of a grant from the Rock Charitable Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation! The $32,900 grant will be used to stabilize and restore the cemetery’s iconic entrance gates and towers, which were constructed with local Potsdam Sandstone in 1910. Thank you Rock Charitable Fund and Northern New York Community Foundation!

The Potsdam Central Modified and Varsity Cross Country teams recently assisted with leaf raking at Bayside.

Five members of the SUNY Potsdam Anthropology Club recently spent their morning straightening up and re-setting footstones on graves in the oldest section of Bayside. The volunteers, all archaeology students, felt right at home with the project. After all, the shovels and buckets were all lent by the archaeology program at the college. Volunteering were Danielle Fregoe, Veronica Bikowicz, Gabe Roberts, Connor Brennan, and Anthropology Club Chair Cass Spillane.

Members of Clarkson University’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity recently turned out to repair footstones in the historic section of Bayside. The footstones mark individual graves in a family plot. Many were moved from older condemned cemeteries in the Village of Potsdam into these family plots when Bayside was built in 1865. Over time, many small markers had fallen over or tipped off their bases. Briefed by Bayside Trustees John Omohundro and Stanley Maine, the students repositioned the stones and also corrected some of the smaller headstones, completing basic repairs on the entire section by dusk. Left to right: TKE brothers Orlando Petterson and David Gumina

Bayside Cemetery volunteer Kathleen Fitzgerald of Potsdam adds a perennial flower to our new Pines Urn Garden, after a season of filling out the greenery on this burial option for urns with cremated remains.

The new Pines Urn Garden was built and partially landscaped in summer 2020.

Bayside Cemetery won a grant from the Pomeroy Foundation to purchase a roadside historical marker indicating that Bayside is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Town of Potsdam has a searchable database for burials in 17 cemeteries, including Bayside.