The Cemetery of the Evergreens , also called The Evergreens Cemetery , is a non-denominational rural cemetery along the Cemetery Belt in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City . It was incorporated in 1849, not long after the passage of New York's Rural Cemetery Act spurred development of cemeteries outside Manhattan . For a time, it was the busiest cemetery in New York City ; in 1929 there were 4,673 interments. Today, the Evergreens is the final resting place of more than 526,000 people.
9-445: The cemetery borders Brooklyn and Queens and covers 225 acres (0.91 km) of rolling hills and gently sloping meadows. It features several thousand trees and flowering shrubs in a park-like setting. Cypress Hills Cemetery lies to its northeast. The Evergreens was built on the principle of the rural cemetery . Two of the era's most noted landscape architects, Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis , were instrumental in
18-594: A section of the cemetery was built on unstable landfill; the cemetery had constructed the Terrace Meadow hill on landfill as a way to increase burial space and appeal to customers who sought burial plots on a hill with a good view. The New York State Supreme Court ruled that the area was unstable and all graves had to be moved. In 2003, charges were laid by Ravi Batra, one of its former court-appointed guardians, who accused another of trying to seize control by quietly installing one of his own employees as president of
27-703: Is run as a non-profit organization and is located at 833 Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn in the Cemetery Belt on the border of both boroughs, and its 225 acres are divided by the Jackie Robinson Parkway . Cypress Hills Cemetery retains its two primary entrances at Jamaica Avenue ( Cypress Hills, Brooklyn ) and Cooper Avenue ( Glendale, Queens ). Cemetery of the Evergreens lies directly to the southwest. Dedicated on November 21, 1848 east of
36-548: The Ridgewood Reservoir , Cypress Hills Cemetery was opened for burials in 1851 and was designed in the rural cemetery style popular at the time. While most burials had previously taken place in or near religious establishments, growing public health concern about burial as a source of disease led to the Rural Cemetery Act and the creation of large rural cemeteries such as Cypress Hills Cemetery within
45-741: The "Cemetery Belt". The initial board of trustees consisted of Abraham H. Van Wyck, Caleb S. Woodwell, C. Edwards Lester, Charles Miller, Luther R. Marsh, Edwin Williams, and Christian Delavan. A portion of the northwest area of the cemetery was designated as the Cypress Hills National Cemetery in 1862 as a military burial ground for soldiers of the American Civil War . A total of 3,425 Union soldiers were buried there, in addition to 478 Confederate soldiers who died while prisoners of war. In 1941 it received
54-547: The bodies of 235 Confederate prisoners who died on Hart Island . 139 soldiers from the Spanish–American War were re-interred at Cypress Hills Cemetery from Montauk Point in 1899. In 1902, during the construction of the Interboro Parkway through Cypress Hills, charges were laid of gross mismanagement by trustees who re-elected themselves each year without oversight, and who received a large income from
63-535: The cemetery: thirteen from World War I and four from World War II. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 2007. Cypress Hills Cemetery Cypress Hills Cemetery is a non-sectarian/non-denominational cemetery corporation organized in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City , the first of its type in the city. The cemetery
72-485: The layout of the cemetery grounds. The Evergreens has a monument to six victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911 who were unidentified for nearly a century. In 2011, Michael Hirsch , a historian, completed four years of research that identified these victims by name (see § Group monument ). There are also seventeen British Commonwealth service personnel buried in
81-400: The sale of burial plots but did not spend any of this on improvements to the cemetery. At this point, 150,000 bodies were buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery. A resolution was passed to create a State Senate committee to investigate these matters. In the late 20th century, a period of mismanagement and controversy led to declaration of bankruptcy. Scandal erupted in 1998 when it was revealed that
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