Middletown Veterans Cemetery Expansion to Add Cremation Burial Plots

MIDDLETOWN, CT — The Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown will expand with state and federal funding to add 1,510 cremation burial plots, officials announced Friday.

Gov. Ned Lamont and members of Connecticut's congressional delegation announced that the state has been awarded a $584,250 grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the expansion. The project also includes $294,250 in state funding that has already been allocated.

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The expansion will take place on a parcel at 317 Bow Lane, adjacent to the existing cemetery. The property was previously used by the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for operations at Connecticut Valley Hospital and was recently transferred to the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs.

The state funding will be used to demolish Cottage 22, a vacant former Connecticut Valley Hospital building on the property.

The federal grant will fund construction of the cremation burial plots, an entrance gate, fencing, landscaping, irrigation, concrete block storage bays, site furnishings and other supporting infrastructure.

"This cemetery provides an invaluable resource in honoring the lives and service of our military veterans and their families," Lamont said. "This expansion of the existing cemetery in Middletown will provide immediate support to ensure that veterans and their families have uninterrupted access to these services over the coming years."

Connecticut Veterans Affairs Commissioner Ron Welch said the cemetery serves as a permanent memorial to Connecticut veterans.

"It is our privilege and honor to maintain the cemetery as a perpetual shrine to their selfless service," Welch said.

The Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery was established in 1985 and serves military veterans, as well as eligible spouses and minor children. The cemetery currently has 14,718 burial plots and 3,000 columbarium niches.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates the existing cemetery will run out of available cremation burial plots around January 2028.

The expansion is expected to extend the availability of cremation burial plots through at least December 2033.

Officials said the additional space will also help align the projected depletion dates for the cemetery's three burial options: casket burials, buried cremains and columbarium niches.

That alignment will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to incorporate all three burial options into plans for a new state veterans cemetery intended to serve Connecticut veterans and their families for decades.