HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Sumner Knight Chapel in Keene
Beaver Street, Keene, NH 03431
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public cemetery during posted daylight hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved roads through the cemetery, with grass plots and gentle slopes
Equipment
Photos OK
Keene Municipal Cemetery · Sumner Knight Memorial Chapel · 19th Century Burial Ground
Woodland Cemetery, often called Woodlawn in informal local usage, is the principal Keene cemetery and is located along Beaver Street in southwestern New Hampshire. The cemetery merges into the adjacent Greenlawn Cemetery to the east, a block off Washington Street. The cemetery contains a substantial archive of nineteenth and twentieth-century burials from Cheshire County.
The Sumner Knight Memorial Chapel stands on the cemetery grounds and is the focal point of much of the cemetery's local folklore. Section 16 of the cemetery served historically as a pauper field; the section lacks headstones for many of its burials, reflecting the period when the city interred unclaimed dead and indigent residents at public expense without permanent markers.
The City of Keene maintains the cemetery, and a comprehensive history titled The History of Keene's Cemeteries and Burying Grounds by Esther P. Cook is available through the City Clerk's office and the Keene Public Library. The Historical Society of Cheshire County also maintains records on the site.
Note: the Shadowlands index lists the cemetery under both Woodlawn and Woodland spellings; the official municipal designation is Woodland.
Sources
Woodland Cemetery's folklore concentrates on the Sumner Knight Memorial Chapel. The Seven Ghostly Haunts blog and the Hauntedplaces.org community page collect several recurring local accounts.
The most reported figure is a young girl, sometimes described as following visitors from behind the trees, visible briefly between the older sections, and audible as a faint giggle. A separate account describes an unhappy adult presence near the chapel itself, with visitors describing a heavy atmosphere within the building. A humorous regional tradition known as the Soap Spirit holds that those who swear near the chapel will taste or smell soap shortly after, a piece of folklore that combines the chapel's solemnity with local-color storytelling.
The Shadowlands entry's description of a loud male voice yelling at midnight in summer, calling out questions, and a crowd of whispering voices is not extensively corroborated in published sources for this specific cemetery. The folklore generally engages atmospheric and human-scale figures rather than the more disruptive scenario in the original narrative.
The cemetery is a working municipal burial ground and should be visited during daylight hours with quiet respect.
Notable Entities
Walk Woodland Cemetery on Beaver Street in Keene, viewing the Sumner Knight Memorial Chapel and the older sections that include the pauper field in Section 16. Note: the Shadowlands entry refers to this cemetery as Woodlawn Cemetery, which is the local oral name; the official municipal designation is Woodland Cemetery.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
Verified stops across all fifty states, rated for families. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Atlanta, GA
Historic Oakland Cemetery was chartered in 1850 as the six-acre 'Atlanta Cemetery,' renamed Oakland in 1872, and expanded to 48 acres. Approximately 70,000 people are interred, including roughly 6,900 Confederate soldiers (3,000 unidentified), four Confederate generals, six Georgia governors, 27 Atlanta mayors, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976.
Forest Park, IL
Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, grew from two adjacent cemeteries — German Waldheim (established 1873) and Forest Home (1876) — which merged in February 1969. The 220-acre site was chosen as a non-denominational burial ground, a policy that made it the only Chicago-area cemetery willing to accept the bodies of the Haymarket defendants in 1887.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPWilton, NH
Vale End Cemetery is a historic burying ground in north-central Wilton, New Hampshire, on Isaac Frye Highway. Among its earliest interments is Mary Ritter Spaulding, first wife of Captain Isaac Spaulding, who died in 1808 at age 35 and shares a headstone with Isaac's second wife, also named Mary. The cemetery dates to the early settlement of Wilton in Hillsborough County.