In the second paragraph of Chapter I of Nathaniel Hawthorne's narrative of Puritan gloom,The Scarlet Letter, he writes that the founders of the new "Utopia" perceived it among their duties and 

their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a (1) cemetery, and another portion as the site of a (2) prison.

Thus, Hawthorne sets the "sad-coloured" mood  and the reflective tone that Puritanism has as it pursuit the end of life and severe restrictions upon that life while on earth even before Hester Prynne steps onto the ignominous scaffold where she must stand in public shame.

In addition, the irony of this opening statement is that the Puritans have come to America for freedom, particularly religious freedom; however,within their own communities, the Puritans appear  rigid and extremely restrictive.  This message, then, arouses the suspicions of the reader regarding the Puritans' real freedom, and, in turn, stirs a curiosity for Hester's defiant excessiveness of embroidery and "gorgeous luxuriance of fancy" for her scarlet A and the sin it represents, as well as her proud stance--"haughty as her demeanour was"-- on this scaffold.  

Just to add a bit, Hawthorne is commenting on the impossibility of having a Utopian community(in chapter one) which was a popular idea with some of his contemporaries (such as Emerson).  Hawthorne attempted to live in a Utopian community and it failed miserably, costing him a lot of money.  In chapter one, he points out that a Utopia is impossible, because you can't stop people from dying (hence the need for a cemetery), and you can't stop people from commiting crimes (hence the need for a prison).

I'm not sure if this is what you're referring to, but in Chapter One, the town is said to have put land away for a cemetery and a prison. Chapter Two is where Hester walks out of prison to stand on the platform with all of the village watching her.