Dover churchyard with a cenotaph for Caesar Rodney and a 'Blue Lady' said to drift the graves
501 South State Street, Dover, DE 19901
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Churchyard is free to walk during daylight. The seasonal First State Heritage Park lantern tour is about $10 per person, reserved by phone.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat brick walks and grass among 18th- and 19th-century markers
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1734 · 1734 Colonial Church · Caesar Rodney Cenotaph · Dover Green Historic District
Christ Episcopal Church stands at the corner of South State and Water Streets, on the edge of the colonial public square in Dover known as The Green. The congregation was organized in 1704 as a mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the surviving brick church was raised in 1734. It was remodeled in 1859 and again in 1887, and the parish remains active.
The churchyard is best known for its connection to Caesar Rodney, the Delaware delegate whose July 1776 ride to Philadelphia helped tip the colony toward independence. A handsome marker in the graveyard bears his name, but it is a cenotaph rather than a grave. As the WDEL public-radio account and the church's own records make clear, Rodney was buried in an unmarked plot on his family's farm southeast of Dover, and the exact spot is no longer known.
The burying ground also holds generations of Dover residents, and the markers reach back into the 18th century. Delaware's First State Heritage Park, which interprets the historic district around The Green, runs seasonal lantern tours of the cemetery that walk visitors through these lives and the city's role as the colonial and early-state capital.
Sources
Christ Church Cemetery is a regular stop on Dover ghost tours, and the lore clusters around two figures. The first is a young woman who reportedly died in the 19th century and is described by guides as the 'Blue Lady,' said to drift among the markers and leave a faint smell of lilac behind her. The second is Caesar Rodney himself. Because his cenotaph stands here but his body lies in an unmarked grave elsewhere, the story goes that he never fully settled; visitors on the tours report the sound of boots and the jingle of riding spurs near his marker.
These accounts come from the commercial ghost-tour trade and local lists of haunted places rather than from documented investigation, and they are best understood as folklore layered onto a genuinely old and atmospheric churchyard. The verifiable mystery underneath the legend is real enough: the most famous man honored here is not actually buried beneath his own monument.
Notable Entities
Walk the burying ground at South State and Water Streets, where the congregation dates to 1704 and the brick church was built in 1734. A formal marker honors Declaration signer Caesar Rodney, though it is a cenotaph and not his grave.
A seasonal evening lantern tour run through Delaware's First State Heritage Park, with costumed interpreters telling the stories of people buried here, including Rodney and Civil War-era residents. Roughly $10 per person; reserve by phone (302-739-9194).
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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