Staring down54th Street from 31st Ave in Woodside, Queens, a street lined with boxybrick apartments and a scant bit of foliage, one would not expect tofind one of the oldest cemeteries in New York nestled in amongst thebuildings...
But there itis, halfway down the block: the Moore-Jackson Cemetery, founded in 1733(276 years ago) and a rare surviving example of a colonial graveyard inQueens.
While doing research on the Marble Cemeteryon Second Ave, I came across a number of sites about the Moore-Jacksoncemetery, which was once located on farmland belonging to the wealthyMoore family. I'm amazed by the idea that any part of a former Queens farm still exists to this day, much less an entire cemetery, and I had to take a look.
The cemeteryis located halfway down the block on 54th Street btw. 31st & 32ndAvenues - you can see it in the below map as that grouping of trees.Though the cemetery entrance is technically on 51st Street, the area isimmensely overgrown and no headstones are visible on that end. Theentire graveyard is fenced and locked up, so you'll have to takepictures from the street.
The cemetery resides on former farmland once owned by the Moore family, of whom Clement Clarke Moore (author of The Night Before Christmas)is a descendant. The Moore farmland, established by Samuel and CharityMoore, covered 100 acres, including the cemetery and a farmhouselocated nearby (torn down in the early 1900's, according to Forgotten-NY - check out their page for an excellent full history). The Moore Cemetery added the Jackson name when one John Jackson married into the family.
The Moorefamily didn't always find itself on the right side of history: duringthe Revolutionary War, the family sided with the British and housedsoldiers. Later, Clement Clarke Moore, a professor at Columbia, arguedagainst abolition.
In the1820's, the Moore farmland was sold off save for the cemetery, whichwas stipulated by will to remain as the family burial ground.
(pan - to see full size, click the picture, then click on All Sizes)
The earliestgrave dates to 1733; the last, 1868. All in all, there wereapproximately 42 burials here, of which only 15 headstones remain.Sadly, the graveyard fell into decay, to the point where by the 1920's,the entire plot of land had become completely overgrown. Builders usedthe site as a garbage dump during the construction of the nearbyapartment buildings, not realizing that headstones still remained. Manyare now broken or illegible. Others have been moved.
The cemeterywas restored after its rediscovery in the 1920's, then forgotten again,left to become further overgrown. In the 1970's, local residentsuncovered it once more, and the cemetery has been looked after tovarying degrees ever since. It received landmark status in 1997 -sorry, developers!
The oldestremaining grave visible from the street, dating to November 23, 1769(240th anniversary is coming up), belonged to one Augustine Moore.
Another grave visible was for Margaret Moore, who died in 1790 just 1 year, 11 months old.
Another grave, this one belonging to Samuel Hallet Moore who died in 1813 at age 23:
This one farther back has been vandalized - someone wrote a name and "January 24, 1967" in marker...nice...
Others have faded or been destroyed.
There are three trees in the cemetery that I really like, small and gnarled, looking like claws reaching up from the ground:
Two of the trees up close:
You can see the posts of a fence, which probably once encircled the cemetery in a chain.
More posts:
And a few more posts:
I love the idea that this tree just south of the cemetery probably stood when the surrounding area was farmland...
The tree:
The entire rear of the cemetery is overgrown. According to The Queens Historical Society,the cemetery went through Phase 1 of a new restoration plan in June.They were looking for volunteers at the time, and I've emailed to seeif Phase 2 is in the near future.
This is the51st Street side, once the entrance to the cemetery. It's amazing tosee such a large pocket of overgrown foliage in the middle of Queens.
My trusty bike poses in another view of the cemetery:
The entrance path:
This is the plaque on the 54th Street side...Come on, City of NY, can we do a little better??
If it'sdifficult for the Marble Cemetery in the middle of Manhattan to raisemoney for restoration, I can only imagine how hard it's been for theMoore-Jackson cemetery. It's unfortunate that the surrounding communityhasn't risen to the challenge - the graveyard could be such a beautifulpark if the desire and respect was there. I hope to help out at thenext restoration phase, and will post info on it when I hear.
www.scoutingny.com
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