"As Wall Street suffered from recent economic and structural deterioration, so did the park facility which also lacked a defined user group," according to a Norwalk city capital projects report. "A goal identified in the Wall Street Redevelopment Plan is the restoration of Wall Street as a traditional center for the Norwalk community which included the development of a downtown residential population. To achieve this goal the Plan outlined a strategy for revitalization of parks and open spaces along the Norwalk River, Freese Park specifically identified as one of these assets." In 2007 the Connecticut Light and Power Company utility helped finance $25,000 of the improvements to the park, including new lighting and landscaping, improved pathways, a new railing along the edge of the river and an irrigation system. Pine Island Cemetery The Pine Island Cemetery, located behind Mathews Park (around the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum), dates to 1708 and has about 1,000 graves. The oldest identified grave belongs to Elizabeth Bartlet, wife of one of the city's founders, who died in 1723 at the age of 38. One burial in the cemetery was as late as 2000. As of the summer of 2007, the Norwalk Historical Commission, concerned that the West Avenue and Reed Putnam redevelopment projects might harm the cemetery, was attempting to get the cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a program run by the National Park Service. Widening nearby Crescent Street, for instance, would mean six graves would have to be moved. The cemetery had been the burial site of pillars of the community, with expensive, elegant gravestones, but by the mid-twentieth century it had become a gravesite for paupers. Emergency services The city of Norwalk Fire Department currently operates 2 Fire Stations in close proximity to the Central or Midtown Norwalk area: Fire Station # 1 is located at 90 New Canaan Ave. in the Broad River/Main Avenue area, and Fire Station # 2, or Fire Headquarters is located at 121 Connecticut Ave. Additionally, Norwalk's first volunteer fire companies, Phoenix Hose Co. 1 and Pioneer Hook & Ladder Co. 1 were quartered at 32 Commerce St. in the Wall Street neighborhood. Later, Hope Hose Co. 2 would move into the building, while the other two fire companies moved north to a new firehouse at 40 Main St.(Now extant). Pictures See also Wall Street Historic District (Norwalk, Connecticut) References External links Lockwood Mathews Mansion