Memorial gift gives Maple Street Cemetery a stone name marker and wall

October 5, 2023  |  By Jill Chase 

For years, it’s been easy to pass by the cemetery on Maple Street in Waterbury Center without really noticing it. Until quite recently, what you saw when approaching was a big field enclosed by a chain link fence and no indication of which cemetery it was. 

Now the fence is gone, trees line the road, and there is a beautiful stone sign identifying the Maple Street Cemetery. 

The sign is a gift from Florilla and Darrel Ames. When Mrs. Ames died in 2021 at the age of 110, her will gave a generous donation to the Waterbury Cemetery Commission. 

The commissioners felt that a lasting entrance sign for the cemetery where Florilla and Darrel lie would be a very fitting tribute for such an enduring local figure as Mrs. Ames. Her husband, Darrel, passed away in 2008.

Patrick Toporowski and his crew at Vermont Stone and Horticulture in Colchester designed and built the sign and the 20x2-foot Ticonderoga stone wall, capped with Woodbury gray granite. A sign on the back notes the Ames gift. 

The project cost just under $38,000 and was funded by the Ames gift and Cemetery Commission funds. 

Jill Chase is a member of the Waterbury Cemetery Commission.