Schriefer “does not desire to appear to be in any way disgruntled, he states that he is rather disturbed by the existing situation. The Brooklyn Standard Union reported that while Mr. The cemetery was unable to sell plots for three years because legally they could be conveyed only by direction of a majority of the board of trustees. Schriefer, managing the cemetery-all the others had passed away and requests to appoint new trustees had repeatedly been ignored by the mayor’s office. However, by 1924 there was only one trustee, George A. When ownership of the 12-acre Canarsie Cemetery, bounded by Remsen Avenue, Avenue K, Church Lane, and East 86th Street, was first transferred to the city, its operation was handed over to a board of trustees designated by the mayor. A chain-link fence surrounds the remnant of the original town cemetery, located on the east side of 91st St, adjacent to what is now the Church at the Rock (Google) A view of Canarsie Cemetery, May 2016 (Mary French)įor many years, things were equally uncertain for the town’s successor cemetery. No headstones are visible today in this vestige of the old town burial ground. Many remains were moved to the new cemetery over the years, but approximately 80 burials may still be interred at the original cemetery site. The half-acre that remains on the eastern side of 91 st Street has been preserved and is owned by the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services. In 1977, the city sold the segment of the property that was west of 91st Street to a developer and residential buildings now stand on that part of the site. Soon after, East 91 st Street was graded right through the graveyard, cutting the original property into two parts. People use it as a thoroughfare and children play about the yard.” In 1932 skeletons and coffins in the neglected cemetery were destroyed when a sewer was run through the site in anticipation of the opening of East 91st Street. Tins and paper rubbish are all about the yard. “Fence is almost all gone about one-third of the stones are fallen down,” he continues. “This cemetery is not kept up at all,” Eardeley writes in his description of the cemetery. Eardeley visited the graveyard in 1915 and recorded inscriptions from the 89 gravestones he found at the site. The original burial ground, which was rarely used after the new cemetery opened in the 1890s, was essentially abandoned and forgotten by the early 20 th century. The Methodist Protestant Church of Canarsie-then named Grace Church-and a portion of original town cemetery in 1928, overgrown with dense vegetation (NYPL)īoth of the Canarsie cemeteries have been imperiled at various times since the City of New York inherited these municipal properties when the five boroughs merged in 1898. Some 6,500 people have been interred in Canarsie Cemetery, which has retained its local ambiance, serving the people of Canarsie as well as the wider community. In 1888 the town purchased another tract of land, nearby the original burial ground, to be used as a new cemetery for the growing community. At the time the town established the burial ground in 1843 the area was a farming and fishing community of about 700 people, but it grew rapidly in the late 19 th century, and new suburban houses attracted a more diverse population. The burial ground-on land purchased from John Remsen for $75-was situated next to the Methodist Protestant Church of Canarsie on what is now East 92nd Street. In 1843 the Town of Flatlands, located in today’s southeastern Brooklyn, acquired an acre of land in the township’s village of Canarsie that served as the community’s cemetery during the 19 th century. An 1890 map showing the current Canarsie Cemetery, and the original town cemetery indicated as “GRAVE YARD” adjacent to the church on East 92nd St
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