New York Marble Cemetery

{{Infobox NRHP

| name = New York Marble Cemetery

| nrhp_type = nrhp

| image = NY Marble Cemetery entrance.jpg

| image_size = 275

| caption = The entrance gate on Second Avenue (2011)

| location = 41½ Second Avenue
Manhattan, New York City, US

| nearest_city =

| coordinates = {{coord|40|43|32.3|N|73|59|27.5|W|region:US-NY_type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| locmapin = New York City#New York#USA

| area = {{convert|0.5|acres|ha}}

| built = 1830

| architect =

| architecture =

| added = September 17, 1980{{NRISref|2007a}}

| visitation_num =

| visitation_year =

| refnum = 80004475

| mpsub =

| designated_other1 = New York State Register of Historic Places

| designated_other1_abbr = NYSRHP

| designated_other1_date = June 23, 1980

| designated_other1_number = 06101.000558

| designated_other1_num_position = bottom

| designated_other2_name = New York City Landmark

| designated_other2_date = March 4, 1969

| designated_other2_abbr = NYCL

| designated_other2_link = New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission

| designated_other2_number =

| designated_other2_color = #ffe978

}}

The New York Marble Cemetery is a burial ground established in 1830 in what is now the East Village of Manhattan. It occupies the interior of the block bounded by 2nd Street, Second Avenue, 3rd Street, and the Bowery. It is entered through an alleyway with an iron gate at each end, located between 41 and 43 Second Avenue. About 2,100 burials are recorded in the cemetery's written registers, most from prominent professional and merchant families in New York City.{{Cite web |title=Records |url=https://www.marblecemetery.org/records |access-date=2025-03-31 |website=www.marblecemetery.org |language=en}}{{cite news|title=Workmen Reveal an Old Cemetery|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/11/04/104999239.pdf|access-date=8 November 2014|newspaper=New York Times|date=4 November 1907}}

The New York Marble Cemetery, which was New York City's first non-sectarian burial place, should not be confused with the nearby New York City Marble Cemetery one block east, which is entirely separate, and was established one year later. Both cemeteries were designated New York City landmarks in 1969,{{cite nycland}}, p.62 and in 1980 both were added to the National Register of Historic Places.{{Cite book |last=Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (3/2/1934 - ) |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319770 |title=New York SP New York Marble Cemetery |series=Records of the National Park Service}}

History and description

Image:New-york-marble-cemetery-inside.JPG weekend]]

{{multiple image|direction=horizontal|total_width=400|align=right

|image1=NY Marble Cemetery wall with vault tablets 2.jpg|caption1=Part of the south wall, showing the embedded marble tablets

|image2=NY Marble Cemetery vault tablets.jpg|caption2=Close-up of two of the marble vault tablets}}

The cemetery was founded as a commercial undertaking of Perkins Nichols, who hired two lawyers, Anthony Dey and George W. Strong, to serve as organizing trustees.Abstract of Title. Indenture form Henry & Marion Eckford to Dey & Strong, in trust. 13 July 1830.[https://media.villagepreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/15002407/ny-marble-cemetery-nyc-designation_report.pdf "NYCLPC Designation Report"] Recent outbreaks of yellow fever led city residents to fear burying their dead in coffins just a few feet below ground,{{cite news |first= Tina|last= Kelley|title= Marble Walls, Roomy, But No Place to Live; Descendants Inherit a Cemetery Filled With History, but in Disrepair |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE4DE1E3AF931A15756C0A9669C8B63 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 22, 2000 |access-date=2008-03-28 }} and public health legislation had outlawed earthen burials. Nichols intended to appeal to this market by providing underground vaults for burial.

Dey and Strong purchased the property on Nichols's behalf, on what was then the northern edge of residential development, on July 13, 1830, and Nichols had the 156 underground family vaults, each the size of a small room, constructed from Tuckahoe marble and laid out in a grid of six columns by 26 rows. He was then reimbursed from the sale of the vaults.

Access to each pair of barrel vaults is by the removal of a stone slab set well below the grade of the lawn, which has no monuments or markers. Marble tablets mounted in the long north and south walls give the names of the original vault owners – though not the names of burials – and indicate the precise location of each corresponding underground vault. By 1997, parts of the North Wall had collapsed and other portions required steel buttresses. The weakened sections were dismantled and rebuilt to an eight-foot height and the buttresses removed as of November 2018.

Nichols, Dey & Strong, and the subscribers applied to the New York State Legislature for a special act of incorporation, and this was granted on February 4, 1831.Abstract of Title. Memorandum of an Agreement contained in the Indenture Tripartite between Nichols, Dey & Strong, and the New York Marble Cemetery. 1 May 1832. According to a historical plaque on the cemetery's entrance gate "Descendants of the 19th century owners may still be buried here."Historical plaque, New York Marble Cemetery. Accessed 2011-05-01

Visiting

According to the cemetery's website, it is usually open on the fourth Sunday of the month from April to October, as well as on other weekends during the year. The cemetery grounds are available for rental for appropriate events.{{cite web |url=http://www.marblecemetery.org/ |title=Home Page |work=New York Marble Cemetery |access-date=2011-10-07}}{{Cite news |last=Harney |first=John |date=2012-07-30 |title=In the East Village, Fun and Fashion Amid Old Tombs |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/nyregion/at-new-york-marble-cemetery-making-merriment-amid-old-tombs.html |access-date=2025-03-31 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news |title=A Hush-Hush Plan for a Not-So-Secret Garden |first=Gregory |last=Beyer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/nyregion/thecity/01ceme.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 1, 2008 |access-date=2011-10-07}}

Notable burials

Gurdon Buck, pioneer plastic surgeon
Aaron Clark, Whig mayor of New York City from 1837 to 1839
Theodore Gordon, angler and sage of the Neversink River
Richard K. Haight, prominent merchant, international travel, spread understanding of ancient Egypt{{citation | last1=Brown |first1=Anne Wright |title=New York Marble Cemetery Interments, 1830-1937 |location=Rhinebeck, New York | date=1999 }}
John Wheeler Leavitt, prominent merchant, grandfather of artist Cecilia Beaux
Pierre Lorillard II, tobacco tycoon
Stevens T. Mason, first governor of Michigan, later reinterred in Capitol Park, Detroit{{cite news |title=Take Gov. Mason's Body |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/06/03/archives/take-gov-masons-body-remains-of-first-executive-of-michigan-to-go.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 3, 1905 |access-date=2011-10-07}}
David Olyphant, a merchant involved in trade with China
Luman Reed American art patron
Uriah Scribner, merchant, and Charles Scribner, publisher, later reinterred at Woodlawn
James Tallmadge Jr., Congressman (1817–19) and New York University Council President
Benjamin Wright, Chief Engineer for the Erie Canal{{cite web |url=http://www.ascemetsection.org/committees/history-and-heritage/landmarks/gravesites-of-civil-engineers#Benjamin-Wright |title=Gravesites of Civil Engineers |work=ASCE Metropolitan Section}}

Prominent New York uppertens families such as the Beeckmans, Hones, Hoyts, Quackenbushes, Varicks and Van Zandts have vaults in the cemetery.

References

Notes

Further reading

{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Anne Wright |title=New York Marble Cemetery Interments, 1830–1937 |edition=2nd|publisher=Published by the author |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-578-62029-9}}
{{cite book |last=Todd |first=Charles Burr |title=In Olde New York: Sketches of Old Times and Places in Both the State and the City |url=https://archive.org/details/ldpd_4760823_000 |year=1907 |publisher=The Grafton Press |location=New York |oclc=3985699 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ldpd_4760823_000/page/n50 29]}}

External links

[http://www.marblecemetery.org Official website]
{{Find a Grave cemetery}}
[https://forgotten-ny.com/2013/05/the-marble-cemeteries-east-village/ Forgotten NY]
[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/marble/ New York Marble Cemetery Records at the New York Historical Society ]