Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Cypress Hills Cemetery (New York City)

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Established
  
1848

Founded
  
1848

Date founded
  
1848

Country
  
United States

Phone
  
+1 718-277-2900

Cypress Hills Cemetery (New York City)

Location
  
Brooklyn and Queens, New York

Website
  
http://www.cypresshillscemetery.org/

Address
  
833 Jamaica Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11208, USA

Hours
  
Open today · 8AM–4:30PMTuesday8AM–4:30PMWednesday8AM–4:30PMThursday8AM–4:30PMFriday8AM–4:30PMSaturday8AM–4:30PMSunday8AM–4:30PMMonday8AM–4:30PM

Burials
  
Jackie Robinson, Mae West, Piet Mondrian

Similar
  
St John Cemetery, Grand Army of the Republic, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Interfaith Medical Center, Brooklyn Hospital Center

Cypress Hills Cemetery was the first non-sectarian/non-denominational cemetery corporation organized in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens in New York City. The Cemetery is run as a non-for-profit organization and is located at 833 Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn. The Cemetery occupies 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).

Contents

History

Established in 1848 east of the Ridgewood Reservoir, Cypress Hills Cemetery was opened for burials in 1851 and was designed to emulate a "rural cemetery" setting. A section 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. In 1941 it received the bodies of 235 Confederate prisoners who died on Hart Island.

In the late 20th century, there was a period of mismanagement and controversy, and finally declared bankruptcy. In 2003, there were charges 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 the cemetery's re-formed board of directors in a bid to gain control of the 200-acre (0.81 km2) cemetery.

Today, the cemetery serves as the final resting place for over 400,000 individuals. The history of Cypress Hills Cemetery is featured in the book Images of America: Cypress Hills Cemetery by Stephen C. Duer and Allen B. Smith.

Features

The cemetery features:

  • Cypress Hills Abbey which was built in 1926.
  • Memorial Abbey Built in 1936.
  • Melrose Memorial Garden Built in 2008.
  • 225 acres of Rural cemetery
  • An urn garden
  • War of 1812 Memorial
  • Civil War Soldiers plot
  • One Commonwealth war grave of Private Fred Wilshear, a World War I soldier of the British Army Labour Corps

    • Notable interments

  • Vytautas Bacevičius (1905–1970), Lithuanian pianist and composer
  • Eubie Blake (1887–1983), musician and composer
  • Homer Lusk Collyer (1881–1947), recluse and hoarder
  • Langley Collyer (1885–1947), recluse and hoarder
  • James J. Corbett (1866–1933), World Heavyweight boxing champion
  • Hiram Cronk (1800–1905), last surviving veteran of the War of 1812
  • William T. Dixon (1833-1909), Baptist minister
  • Mock Duck (1879–1941), New York Chinese Chinatown gang leader
  • Monk Eastman (1873–1920), notorious New York Gang leader
  • Lee Falk (1911–1999), cartoonist, creator of The Phantom
  • Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson (1845–1894), major league baseball player, manager
  • Kate Fox (1837–1892), spiritualist
  • Maggie Fox (1833–1893), spiritualist
  • Dr. Thomas Holmes, Physician who is considered the father of American embalming
  • Irving Lehman (1876–1945), Chief Judge of the NY Court of Appeals
  • George Leonidas Leslie (1842–1878) Architect, Noted Bank Robber
  • Rosetta Lenoire (1911–2002), actress, National Medal of the Arts winner
  • Wenjian Liu (1982–2014), NYPD officer, slain during the December 2014 killings of NYPD officers
  • George H. Mills (1843–1885), murderer
  • Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Dutch painter
  • Victor Moore (1876–1962), actor, comedian
  • Jackie Robinson (1919–1972), Hall of Fame baseball player, the first African-American player in the major leagues
  • Rufus L. Perry(1834-1895), journalist, Baptist minister
  • Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938), founder of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York City
  • Capital Steez (1993–2012) Former member of Pro Era, Founder of Beast coast movement
  • Mae West (1893–1980), actress, comedian, and playwright; second floor of the Cypress Hills Abbey
  • Josh White (1914–1969), musician
  • John B. Wood (1827–1884), journalist

    • In Marvel Comics, Cypress Hill Cemetery served as the headquarters of the supernatural superhero team, The Midnight Sons. The Cemetery was also introduced in many Ghost Rider comics featuring the Legion of Vengeance.

    References

    Cypress Hills Cemetery (New York City) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA