The Walker Vault

With its lack of a family name on the exterior and its entrance now sealed with a stone wall, this vault has always had an air of mystery about it.  Located on the North Ridge just across the road from the Soldiers Lot, the vault had iron doors when I first saw it in the early 1990s.  At some point, though, the badly rusted doors were removed (leaving the black marks from the process), and the entrance closed.

The plot was purchased in 1867 by Frederick W. Walker who erected this vault for his family not long after.  According to Cemetery records, Frederick Walker attended the Albany Academy around 1819.  A lumber merchant and attorney, his address was listed as 187 State Street (part of a block since removed when the Empire State Plaza was built).  He was the son of Willard Walker, a merchant with an establishment at 64 Quay Street (now covered by the amphitheater area of the Corning Preserve).  Willard Walker was born June 18, 1769, died January 1, 1848, and is listed among the burials in this vault.

Also listed as buried here is Lavinia Walker, wife of Willard who died giving birth to a stillborn child at the age of thirty-three on November 11, 1818, a Maria Walker who is identified as the three year old daughter of Willard and his second wife, (also named Maria and presumably buried here) and an H. Woodruff whose relationship to the family is not indicated, but who is identified as a builder who died in 1839 at the age of fifty-eight.