Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Cleaning up Lawrence Cemetery

At a quiet corner in Bayside sits a cemetery where the oldest grave dates to 1832 and the buried souls include a 19th-century New York City mayor.

Sadly, the history of Lawrence Cemetery - designated a city landmark in 1967 - is routinely lost on passersby.

"People dump trash and refuse as they walk past because they see the site as empty," griped Daniel Egers, a trustee with the Bayside Historical Society.

Egers and a team of volunteers view the boneyard in a far different light. They came on Friday and Saturday to cut grass, pull weeds and prune trees - trying to restore the land to its former glory.


Friends of Lawrence Cemetery seek to recover its old glory

5 comments:

Gabriel said...

Bayside? Isn't there a Lawrence Cemetery in Astoria?

Anonymous said...

yup.

Halloween story to scare the kiddies:

Delis wants to buy it!

Anonymous said...

Where's the Lawrence family to take care of their ancestors' graves?

Anonymous said...

These folks are dead. Pool some monies to hire a nice cheap monthly crew for maintance and upkeep. Spend the time on people that are LIVING. Be a big sister or brother to a youth that can benefit from the attention. Volunteer to spend time with the elderly at your local nursing home etc....

Trust me ...dead folks are just that...dead.

IanMc said...

I grew up in Bayside and attended PS 31 in the early 80s. One time during school we took a field trip to Lawrence cemetery and we made tracings of the tombstones with wax paper. I wonder if they still let kids do that. I wish I had kept my tracing but it is long gone.