Bowery in Manhattan in New York County, New York — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)

Secret Cemetery Secret Garden

New York Marble Cemetery

— behind 325-335 Bowery —

Secret Cemetery Secret Garden Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Larry Gertner, July 12, 2016

1. Secret Cemetery Secret Garden Marker

Inscription. NY Marble Cemetery is a hidden half-acre garden bounded by 2nd and 3rd Streets, Second Avenue and Bowery. Built in 1830, it is NYC’s oldest non-denominational cemetery. In contains 156 underground family vaults the size of small rooms, surrounded by 12-foot-high Greek Revival-style walls of Tuckahoe marble. There are no headstones for the 2,100 burials; only plaques on walls naming family purchasers and corresponding vault numbers.

Interments include NYC’s second popularly elected mayor, Aaron Clark; NYU co-founder and abolitionist Congressman James Tallmadge; Mary Ann Delafield DuBois, NY Nursery & Child’s Hospital founder; Erie Canal engineer Benjamin Wright; and New York Historical Society founder Luman Reed, who founded the city’s first art museum in his home. Though burials slowed in the mid-1800s as families sought plots in more rural areas, a 1905 fundraising effort helped maintain the cemetery for the 20th century, just as rental events like weddings assure survival into the 21st.

This NYC Landmark, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is open once a month during warm weather. Check marblecemetery.org for dates.

Erected 2016 by Bowery Alliance of Neighbors.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Cemeteries & Burial Sites. A significant historical year for this entry is 1830.

Location.

Paid Advertisement

Click or scan to see
this page online

40° 43.545′ N, 73° 59.508′ W. Marker is in Manhattan, New York, in New York County. It is in the Bowery. It is on Bowery near East 2nd Street, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 325-335 Bowery, New York NY 10003, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in New York City.

It is also in the American Northeast

and in the Mid-Atlantic.

Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region,

North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Netherland

and also one of the original Thirteen Colonies.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Tin Palace Jazz Club (here, next to this marker); Bouwerie Lane Theater (within shouting distance of this marker); Then You Saw It/Now You Don’t (within shouting distance of this marker); Casting At The Cast Iron Bank (within shouting distance of this marker); World’s Smallest Opera House (within shouting distance of this marker); Alexander’s Musee (within shouting distance of this marker); CBGB (within shouting distance of this marker); Hats, Hardware & Horses (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Manhattan.

More about this marker. One of more than sixty entries in the “Windows on the Bowery” series.

Regarding Secret Cemetery Secret Garden. The grounds are listed in the "AIA (American Institute of Architects) Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition".

Also see . . . New York City Marble Cemetery - National Archives. National Register