By Phil Corso
Tucked away in a quiet cemetery off Bell Boulevard, the Bayside Historical Society set its sights more than 150 years in the past as interested onlookers went along for the ride back in time.
The Lawrence Cemetery, at the corner of 216th Street and 42nd Avenue, might be an unknown location to many, the Historical Society said. But on Saturday, 10 actors dressed in attire from the 1600s to 1900s and provided a performance and tour of the site made popular by the family who rests there.
“The Lawrence family was a very ambitious family,” said Denise Johnson, vice president of education for the historical society. “They have many accomplishments to their name and contributed in many ways to New York City.”
Actors portrayed various members of Bayside and Flushing’s more than 13-generation Lawrence family in the spot where the family used to frequent for picnics and other occasions while standing beside the tombstones of their characters.
“We really love Bayside and we love that people come out to share this with us,” said Paul Di Benedetto, president of the historical society. “It really means a lot.”
Board member Aline Euler, dressed as Mary Nichol Lawrence, spoke near her designated headstone in the landmarked Bayside cemetery to tell the story of her character, who lived and died in Bayside from Jan. 9, 1822, to Aug. 12, 1896.
“I was the very busy second wife of Andrew H. Mickle, who also was mayor of the city of New York from 1846-1847,” Euler said in her role as Mary Nichol Lawrence, daughter of Ann Townsend and Effingham Lawrence. “I loved my estate, which I called ‘Bay Lawn,’ but I must regretfully report that our magnificent mansion was destroyed by a fire in 1890.”
Euler said it took the group weeks to prepare the performance, but the actors saw the effort as well worth their time as long as Bayside’s history was preserved.
“It’s fun for us,” Euler said before the performance began. “We wanted to do something to get people to know a little more about Bayside.”
Though no Lawrence relatives were present, each character told his or her tale from the period when they frequented the streets of northeast Queens, taking playful jabs at one another to appear most relevant to the family name by touting their accomplishments and contributions.
Henry Euler, secretary of the historical society, spoke his lines as if they were his own words as he portrayed John Lawrence, a former town clerk of Flushing in the late 1600s.
“When I moved to New Amsterdam in 1657, I served under Gov. Stuyvesant as a commissioner to settle boundary disputes between the Dutch colony of New Netherlands and New England, I knew I was taking on a great challenge,” Henry Euler said as John Lawrence. “An even greater challenge was keeping the peace between the Indians and the Dutch!”
Actors read their parts in accordance with a script, which Johnson had prepared for the performance. Johnson said the information used in the show was in part taken from the historical archives at the historical society’s officers club at Fort Totten in Bayside.
“The stories are accurate and historically significant of this family, who helped build the very foundation of this community,” Johnson said. “Some residents of this town work very hard to preserve the past.”
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
