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Address: Greenpoint Avenue at Gale Avenue Constructed:1892 LPC Action: Calendared 1973; Public Hearing in 1973
The Old Calvary Cemetery Gatehouse is designed in the Roman Vernacular Queen Anne style. The Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral trustees had purchased land in Maspeth and built Calvary Cemetery. In 1847, faced with cholera epidemics and a shortage of burial grounds in Manhattan, the New York State Legislature passed the Rural Cemetery Act authorizing nonprofit corporations to operate commercial cemeteries. The first burial in Calvary Cemetery was in 1848. By 1852 there were 50 burials a day; by the 1990s there were nearly 3 million burials in Calvary Cemetery. It is today one of the largest cemeteries in the US. |
