Deacon John Grave House

12/08/2025

Great Conial Holiday event! If you missed it, drop us an email so we can tell you ahead of time @ deaconjohngrave.org

11/22/2025

Join us for our ninth annual Children’s Holiday and Open House. Enjoy an old-fashioned holiday afternoon full of cookie decorating, holiday crafts, roasting chestnuts, live music, storytelling and refreshments. Create winter memories with the whole family! Admission is free.

See highlights from last year’s festivities here.
https://deaconjohngrave.org/the-deacon-opens-his-home-for-the-childrens-holiday-party/

03/25/2024

Education is what the Deacon John Grave House does best

From the article:
Each Witness Stones project centers on one enslaved person and culminates with the installation of a small bronze plaque at a site where the person lived, worked or worshiped.

Henrik Sharpe, 14, a student at the Country School in Madison, recently spent time studying the account book of the family of Deacon John Grave.

Grave’s historic home, known today as the “Deacon John Grave House,” still stands in the coastal Connecticut town.

Several people were enslaved here, records show.

Unforgotten is a cross-platform series chronicling Connecticut’s ties to slavery.

https://deaconjohngrave.org/cptv-they-cant-imagine-this-actually-happening/

Send a message to learn more

05/19/2022

The Garden Club holds annual plant sale following two-year absence. On a beautiful May day gardeners flocked to the grounds of the Grave House to purchase plants and enjoy the gardens including the wildflower walk

04/18/2022

The Deacon John Grave Barn gets a new paint job.

Some restoration and painting were completed recently on the Barn

It was first power washed, stripped and one full coat of grey oil primer was applied.

Two coats of latex completed the job.

Thanks to the Summerhill Foundation for its generous grant.

01/08/2022

This Year’s Madison Lyric Stage at the Deacon John Grave House

09/07/2021

Tony Award-Winning Drama Comes to Deacon John Grave House!

Madison Lyric Stage Company performed the landmark play, The Boys in the Band, eight times from July 22 to August 1. The actors showcased this stellar production under a tent on the Grave House grounds, as the company’s second offering of its theater season.

The Boys in the Band focuses on a group of gay men who gather for a 1968 birthday party in New York City. The evening conversations reveal the touching truths and well-kept secrets of each man attending.

A talented cast played to sold-out crowds, who responded with enthusiasm and standing ovations nightly.

07/16/2021

Deacon John’s Family Members Visit the Old Homestead
Although the Deacon’s House has rested quietly during the pandemic, it opened up on July 8th, a Grave House board member showcased the home to visiting family members. Melanie Graves Lopez from Oregon joined Michael D. Graves from Maine for the tour.

07/16/2021

After a year without July 4th activities, a parade returned to Madison’s main street with record crowds stretched along the entire parade route. A vintage car, sporting signage with “Deacon John Grave 1685”, passed the Grave House with flair and a wave. A variety of participants numbered among the marchers… essential workers, first responders, politicians, pipers, along with fife and drum corps. Monday evening fireworks wrapped up the long weekend.

10/29/2020

THE HISTORY OF SLAVES AT THE DEACON JOHN GRAVE HOUSE WITH PRESIDENT TERRY ROBERTS.
As part of St. Andrew's series on Racial Healing, Justice, and Reconciliation, Terry Roberts, President of the Deacon John Graves Foundation, shared his research about the first recorded use of slaves in Madison, CT, as taken from the journals recorded by generations of the Deacon John Graves family, starting in 1685.
Video: First recorded use of slaves in Madison
https://bit.ly/2TvgGBP

04/24/2020

Decided to put up the Holiday wreath which gives our House a welcome and warm feeling in this strangest of times. So less strange.

04/23/2020

Our House video:

This is "Deacon John Grave House" by Bill Brown on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.