Woodlawn Cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1863 and comprises more than 400 acres in the Bronx. Woodlawn contains more than 1,300 mausoleums, the largest collection in the country. Many prominent architects, landscape designers, and other individuals have created works at Woodlawn, such as McKim, Mead &; White, Carrere & Hastings, Cass Gilbert, Frederick Law Olmstead, and Louis Comfort Tiffany. The cemetery is the final resting ground of many important figures of American art, literature, and politics including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Herman Melville, Joseph Pulitzer, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Robert Moses. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011.

New York Marble The New York Marble Cemetery was founded in 1830 and is the City’s first and oldest non-sectarian cemetery. It’s located between East 2nd and 3rd streets, and Second Avenue and the Bowery. Outbreaks of yellow fever around 1830 led to laws prohibiting earthen burials, so all of the cemetery’s burials are in white Tuckahoe marble vaults below ground. More than 2,100 people, mostly from prominent professional and merchant families, are buried here. Marble Cemetery is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trinity Churchyard The parish of Trinity Church has three separate burial grounds associated with it in New York City. The first, Trinity Churchyard, is located in Lower Manhattan at 74 Trinity Place, near Wall Street and Broadway. The churchyard includes tombstones and memorials dating back to 1681. One of its most popular sites is Alexander Hamilton's tomb. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury, founded The Bank of New York and the U.S. Mint, and was the youngest framer of the Constitution. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton lies next to Alexander’s grave. Trinity Churchyard is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

St. Paul’s Chapel Churchyard The second Trinity parish burial ground is the St. Paul's Chapel Churchyard, established in 1766. St. Paul’s churchyard is bounded by Broadway on the east, Church Street on the west, Vesey Street on the north, and Fulton Street on the south. It contains about 800 gravestones, and 30 vaults lie under the churchyard and chapel. Burials in the churchyard discontinued after interments in lower Manhattan were prohibited during the first half of the 19th century, although occasional interments were made in the family vaults into the early 1900s. The Conservancy was pleased to present St. Paul’s Chapel a Lucy G. Moses Award in 2016 for the restoration of the Chapel and churchyard.

Trinity Church Cemetery Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum was established in 1842 in Washington Heights as space at Trinity Church’s Lower Manhattan church yard was dwindling. The cemetery is bound by Riverside Drive, Amsterdam Avenue, 153rd Street, and 155th Street. James Renwick Jr., architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, was chosen to landscape the cemetery and lay its paths. Calvert Vaux was brought in later to landscape the area. The nearby Church of the Intercession provided funeral services for the cemetery and was, for a time, a chapel for Trinity Church. Several members of the Astor family as well as former mayor Ed Koch are buried here. Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Chatham Square Cemetery The second oldest extant burial ground in Manhattan is Shearith Israel’s Chatham Square cemetery, located in Chinatown at 55 St. James Place. The land was originally purchased in 1682 by Joseph Bueno de Mesquita. Fittingly, the first interment in this cemetery was that of his relative Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita in the year 1683. It is the oldest of three Manhattan graveyards currently maintained by Congregation Shearith Israel which is itself the oldest Jewish congregation in North America. The Congregation was formed by Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic Jewish immigrants in 1654. Today, the cemetery is a mere fragment of its original extent. Only about a hundred headstones and above ground tombs can still be seen in what remains of the old burial ground, which rises slightly above street level. It is the only remaining 17th century structure in Manhattan

Old Gravesend Cemetery The Old Gravesend Cemetery in Brooklyn, established c. 1658, is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Gravesend was founded by Lady Deborah Moody, who led a group of Anabaptists here in search of religious freedom. The town encompassed a large section of Brooklyn and was an example of early American urban planning. Many of the town’s original patentees are buried here, and it is believed that Lady Moody is buried here as wel

Prospect Cemetery Prospect Cemetery is one of the City’s few remaining colonial cemeteries, and is located in Jamaica, Queens. It was established by English settlers who created the Town of Jamaica using land granted by the Dutch. The cemetery was extended by various landowners, one of whom is Nicholas Ludlum. Ludlum built a chapel in the cemetery, the Chapel of the Sisters, as a memorial to his three deceased daughters. Members of early prominent families, such as the Van Wycks, Sutphins, and Brinkerhoffs, are buried here, as well as Revolutionary War veterans. For two decades, the Conservancy has worked with the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. and Prospect Cemetery Association on the Prospect Cemetery Revitalization Initiative with the City of New York Parks Department and helped secure $2.4 million in public and private support to stabilize and revitalize this important landmark site. Efforts included tree removal, grounds clearing, new grass and plantings, marker conservation, and the restoration of the Chapel of the Sisters. The York College Jazz Program regularly uses the Chapel for performances, and other groups hold activities there as well. Prospect Cemetery is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sandy Ground Cemetery The town of Rossville on Staten Island, colloquially known as “Sandy Ground,” was once the location of a free black community in the mid-19th century. Black oystermen migrated from Maryland to Sandy Ground as a result of racially restrictive commerce laws that were enacted in Maryland. At Sandy Ground, they bought land, built houses, and started commercial businesses. In 1852, the Rossville A.M.E. Church was erected with a cemetery beside it. Though the Church moved to another location, the cemetery remained as the primary burial place for Sandy Ground’s residents. By the end of the 19th century, the waters around New York City became polluted, destroying the oyster industry and Sandy Ground with it. The Conservancy first became involved with Sandy Ground in 1997 when we gave an emergency grant to restore headstones in the cemetery that were toppled by vandals. In 2016, A Conservancy-funded study found more than 500 unmarked graves at the site. The cemetery is a designated City landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

African Burial Ground The African Burial Ground near City Hall in Lower Manhattan is the oldest and largest known excavated burial ground in North America for both free and enslaved Africans. It protects the historic role slavery played in building New York. Burials date from the middle 1630s to 1795. It is a National Park Service site and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. To learn more, visit https://www.nps.gov/afbg/index.htm