By Gabriel Rom
Life is returning to the Evergreen Cemetery.
The cemetery, which sits on the Glendale/Bushwick border, will receive two grants totaling $1.3 million as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s effort to restore 16 historically significant properties across New York state that sustained damages during Sandy.
A $1 million grant will primarily help repair the damaged Beacon Hill section of the cemetery, where a swath of trees—maples, cherries, dogwoods, birches, cedars and pines—were wiped out, leaving behind just a thicket of grass along a hillside for the past three years. The funds will also aid in debris removal, helping to finish landscape restorations and repairing damaged gravestones and monuments.
The Evergreens Cemetery Preservation Foundation will also get a $320,000 grant to commission a cultural landscape report to assess damage to the landscape, and provide short-term and long-term treatment plans.
“Beacon Hill was completely exposed to the elements and it was just hammered. We’re going to stabilize the area so we can restore it to its previous setting,” explained Michael Conte, the cemetery’s superintendent.
Beyond specific restorations, those behind the cemetery hope to use the new funds to turn it back into a public space and reconnect it with its original mission.
First created in 1849 as a “rural-cemetery,” the Evergreens was conceived as both a place for burial and a public center—“a museum, arboretum, bird sanctuary, park, historical archive and landmark,” according to cemetery historians Blanche Linden-Ward and David C. Sloane.
“When my mother was a little girl in the 1930s, she would see people here rehearsing plays, musicians playing banjos, people just strolling along.” said Danny Daddario, the cemetery’s current historian.
“I want to bring this place back to its original glory, to re-inspire life here,” he added.
Julie Bose, president of the Evergreens Cemetery, hopes that the funding will help revitalize the grounds for the public.
“We don’t have much open space in this city, but we have this huge place. More and more people are coming in. Folks come here on regular days. People really enjoy the cemetery grounds, and this money is only going to help.”
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
