Moravian Cemetery, Richmond, NYC

The Moravian Cemetery is a cemetery in the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City.

Located at 2205 Richmond Road, the Moravian is the largest and oldest active cemetery on Staten Island, having opened in 1740. The cemetery encompasses 113 acres (46 hectares) and is the property of the local Moravian Church congregation of Staten Island. To the cemetery's southwest is High Rock Park, one of the constituent parks of the Staten Island Greenbelt.

History

In what was a purely farming community, the 113-acre (46 ha) cemetery was originally made available as a free cemetery for the public in order to discourage families from using farm burial plots. The Moravian Cemetery is the burial place for a number of famous Staten Islanders, including members of the Vanderbilt family.

After the closure in the 1880s of the South Reformed Dutch Church in Richmondtown the graves of that church's graveyard were reinterred at Moravian.

In the 19th century, Cornelius Vanderbilt gave the Moravian Church 8 1⁄2 acres (3.4 ha). Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt gave a further 4 acres (1.6 ha) and constructed the residence for the cemetery superintendent. The Vanderbilt mausoleum, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed in 1885–1886, is part of the family's private section within the cemetery. Their mausoleum is a replica of a Romanesque church in Arles, France. The landscaped grounds around the Vanderbilt mausoleum were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Vanderbilt section is not open to the public.

A monument to Robert Gould Shaw, a Union soldier who led the first all-black regiment in the American Civil War and died in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, was erected here by his family. The director Martin Scorsese also has a burial plot here.

Notable burials

• Alice Austen (1886-1952), notable 20th Century photographer.
• Thomas Bilotti (1940-1985), Mobster Gambino crime family
• Frank Cali (1965-2019), former reputed boss of the Gambino crime family.
• John Merven Carrère (1858-1911), partner in notable Beaux-Arts architecture firm.
• Paul Castellano (1915-1985), former boss of the Gambino crime family.
• Frank DeCicco (1935-1986), former underboss of the Gambino crime family.
• Frank J. LeFevre (1874-1941), Congressman.
• John L. O'Sullivan (1813-1895), journalist who first utilized in print the phrase Manifest Destiny to embody American expansionist ambitions.
• Anning Smith Prall (1870-1937), Congressman and Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
• Bradhurst Schieffelin (1821-1909), 19th Century social activist.
• Stephen H. Weed (1831-1863), Union General who died in the Battle of Gettysburg.
• Paul Zindel (1936-2003), notable playwright and young adult novelist.

In popular culture

In the novel It's Superman: A Novel, the mother of the character Lex Luthor is buried here.