Criterion A: Exploration and Settlement
Criterion C: Art
Criterion Consideration D: Cemetery
Period of Significance: 1721 - 1802
Local Level of Significance
The Rendezvous Point Burying Ground is a small, long-abandoned cemetery in a built-up rural section of Saco, York County, Maine. The cemetery was established as a public burying ground without an associated religious affiliation or buildings. Used since at least 1721, the site was donated to the town by James Coffin in 1827. The cemetery is significant under Criterion A for its association with early exploration and settlement in the area. The cemetery contains graves of the early European residents of the permanent settlement of Saco, established in 1713. It appears to include a number of un-marked graves that could date from even earlier than the first dated stone. The cemetery is also significant under Criterion C for folk art carvings on several of the stones. The death heads and other motifs are the work of unidentified skilled carvers. The Rendezvous Point Burying Ground meets Criteria Consideration D: Cemeteries because it derives its primary significance from its age, association with early local settlement patterns, and folk art. The locally significant cemetery has a period of significance from 1721 to 1802. The period is determined by the date of the earliest grave marker and the date of the most recent stones displaying folk art.