Landmarking sought for Elmhurst's African Methodist cemetery

St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church
95-18 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights, New York 11372
E-Mail: stmarkchurch2@verizon.org
Rev. Kimberly L. Detherage, Esq., Pastor

Parties Meet Over 15 Graves

CHURCH REQUESTS HELP FROM LOCAL POLITICIANS
After several postponements, Wednesday, April 2nd Saint Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church and the current owners will meet with the New York City Departments of Landmark Preservation, Buildings and Health to decide the fate of the bodies of former parishioner, including the 15 bodies exhumed a few months ago, in the old cemetery that was formerly a part of the church. Developers of the land planned an above and underground parking structure beside the recently completed structure of condominiums and retail spaces located at what was 90-15 Corona Avenue (Block 1586, Lot 10).

Construction was halted for a brief time on the completed structure and postponed on the parking in 2012 when the mummified remains of a former female parishioner buried in an iron coffin (the Iron Coffin Lady), who was so well preserved that the construction crew mistook her for a recent murder victim and called the authorities. Last December, 15 additional bodies whose grave marking were previously destroyed, were disinterred on the property.

“St. Mark is of course concerned about the fate of the bodies of our past members. We want to find a way to preserve the final resting place of those left of the approximately 300 souls who were buried in the church’s former cemetery,” said St. Mark’s Pastor Kimberly L. Detherage, Esq. The church has contacted its local councilpersons, assemblymen, district leader, state senator, Congressman, Senators and the Mayor in hopes of realizing the three goals it has identified:
• To leave the recently uncovered graves where they are and not to move or cremate the remains
• To have this African American burial site declared a protected landmark
• To hold the current owners/construction company responsible for the storage, memorial and re-burial costs of the Iron Coffin Lady as well as a memorial for the recently uncovered bodies as was initially agreed.

“After reviewing the agenda, we are afraid that now that this meeting is happening, its results will be a foregone conclusion – a rubber stamp on the destruction of for this African American burial ground,” said Rev. Detherage. “We are really hoping that some of our representatives will stand up for the recognition and peaceful rest of these former citizens.”

CONDOS/STORE FRONTS BUILT OVER CHURCH CEMETERY
On December 24, 2013 upon information and belief, 15 graves were unearthed during recent construction on the plot of land that is now 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue but was formerly 90-15 Union Avenue, the address of the Union Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church and its cemetery, the previous name of the Saint Mark AME Church of 96-18 Northern Boulevard. These graves are directly behind a row of new condominiums and store fronts that were erected despite St. Mark’s concerns and inquiries about this property since the October 2011 disinterment of the mummified remains of an African American woman in an iron casket who was found on this same property during the construction of the condominiums.

Location: The property in question is approximately 1.4 acres previously listed as 90-15 Corona Ave, (Block 1586, Lot 10) in Queens, New York. It is on Corona Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets in front of the right-of-way for the Port Washington branch of the Long Island Railroad and across the street from Newtown High School. The condos are entered at 47-19 and 47-21 91st Street, next door to a residence at 47-07 91st Street, and the block of store fronts extends from 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue and are next door to the Sabor Colombia 2 restaurant at 90-31 Corona Avenue.

Property Owners: Several names have been connected with the ownership, development and construction of this property. While we understand that it is a consortium and suspect that they are all connected, here are the names we know upon information and belief:

Original Owner: AMF Machine Corp. Corona Properties (located at 68-33 Shore Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11220)

Original Construction Company: Denali Construction
Original Construction Company’s Lawyers: Peter G. Geis, Cozen O'Connor,
Owner’s Former Archeologist: Jo-Ann McLean Inc. Archaeological Consultants
Current Owners: Bo Jing Zhu Corp.
Current Construction Company: Dahill Construction (Rahman Perul 718-912-8874).
Current Lawyer: Yi Han of Experta Group, Inc.
Current Archeologist: Michael Audin of Archeology and Historical Research Service
Management Company: Wing Fung Realty (718-699-9000)

Time Line:
• 1828: the United African Society purchased the property in question from local landowner William Hunter and his wife Jane for $75.00 and erected a carpenter shop where they worshipped until they could build a church edifice.
• 1888: the cemetery reportedly contained 310 graves.
• 1902: when a church trustee, Mr. Purcell Harris inquired into the denomination using the property; after a thorough investigation, the property was returned to the church, which applied to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in 1906 and we renamed ourselves the Union Avenue AME Church.
• 1906: and we renamed ourselves the Union Avenue AME Church.
• 1928: the City of New York, in its effort to widen Union Avenue (now named Corona Ave.) disinterred and transferred 20 bodies from the church cemetery to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens.—Thomas Johnson, Samuel Dualing, Jacob Lip, Jesus Huff, Nicholas Coles, Henry Stephens, Emma Stevens, Emma Lawrence, Elsie Harris, John Johnson, James Peterson, James Peterson, Jr., Sarah Hodges, Rachel Warren, Carolina Johnson, David Watson, Thomas Peterson, George Harris, Sarah Stephens and Katie Johnson (Graves Number 2 and 3 in Section C, Lot 3498; Burial Permit numbers 308-327).
• 1929: the church moves to 95th Street and 32nd Avenue and is renamed Saint Mark AME Church.
• 2005: (revised 2006) A Phase 1a Archeological Investigation study was conducted and a document prepared BY: Jo-Ann McLean Inc. Archaeological Consultants at the request of Peter G. Geis, Cozen O'Connor, attorneys representing Denali Construction and property owners AMF Machines Corp. Corona Properties
• 2011: the mummified remains of a 19th century African American woman, the Iron Coffin Lady, buried in an iron casket are unearthed during the construction of the current condos and store fronts.
• December 24, 2013: 15 graves were unearthed during recent construction on the plot of land that is now 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue but was formerly 90-15 Union Avenue. Wing Fung Realty is the management company whose sign declares they are conducting the sale and Dahill Construction is listed as the current property owners on the NY Department of Transportation notices for sidewalk and bus shelter (Q 19) openings in the lobby and storefront windows

St. Mark’s Goals:
While we feel it is our ecclesiastical duty to return to peaceful rest the remains of our former congregants, we recognize that records show the disinterment of only 21 bodies from our predecessor, the Union Avenue AME Church’s Cemetery, including an African American woman who was so carefully and expensively for the time period, laid to rest in consecrated ground that historical reports claim held at least 310 bodies in 1888. Therefore, we feel that the remaining land, which is separated from the recent construction by a concrete parking lot, be set aside as a memorial:
- that the recently uncovered graves be closed and allowed to remain where they are,
- that the remaining land be designated landmark status and
- that the property owner/construction company pay the cost of re-interment, storage and memorial, as previously agreed, for the Iron Coffin Lady as well as a memorial for the 15 recently uncovered graves.

Church hopes to preserve slave burial ground

Aerial view of site of United African Society in 1924

From the Daily News:

A local church is hoping to preserve a long-forgotten burial ground for freed slaves that was discovered on the Elmhurst site where a five-story condominium building is slated to go up.

Leaders of the Saint Marks A.M.E. Church in Jackson Heights plan to meet on Thursday with the owners of the property, at 90-11 Corona Ave., to plead their case.

The church was founded in 1828 on the site of the burial ground as the United African Society. Over the years, the congregation’s name and location changed.

“The site is very significant because it is believed to be one of the first places where former slaves organized and started their own church,” said the church’s pastor Kimberly Detherage.

“In a time when people are tearing things down and building, it’s important to know our history,” she said.

The construction crew found the body of a woman in 2011 when a machine accidentally dredged up her iron casket as they were tearing down a decades-old warehouse. She is believed to have died in the 1850s.

“We dubbed her the Iron Lady,” said John Houston, owner of the Triboro Funeral Home, in Corona, where she is stored. “The body is so well-preserved they thought it was a [recent] murder.”

After the discovery, construction was halted and the owners of the site, 90 Queens Inc., hired an archeologist to research the burial ground. Bones of 15 more bodies were unearthed in October.

Houston said there’s no telling how many more are buried there.

The city issued a partial stop work order at the site, which is across the street from Newtown High School.

“We were never aware there was a graveyard there,” said the project’s construction manager, who declined to give her name. “We covered everything back and are talking to the Health Department to find out ... the proper way to [handle] this.”

The property owners did not immediately return calls.

Now here's an immigration issue no one talks about

From the Daily News:

New York's metropolitan area is home to more women and girls who have been mutilated in female circumcision ceremonies — or are at risk — than any other U.S. city, experts estimate.

The global practice is a local issue, thanks to illegal surgeries performed here — but immigrant girls are often sent back to their parents’ homelands to undergo mutilation.

The centuries-old practice, based on beliefs about premarital “cleanliness,” has immigrated to the U.S. along with families from parts of West Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The surgery is most widely done on infants and teens. It severely reduces sexual pleasure and can cause major health complications.

For some immigrants, the initial procedure may have been done back home, but the pain is compounded here.

When she was 15, Jaha Dukureh’s father made her go to a Manhattan doctor’s office to get her vagina — almost entirely sewn up during an infant circumcision ceremony in her native Gambia — cut back open so she would be ready for a forced arranged marriage to a 45-year-old man.

She believes the doctor knew it was for an underage wedding — a Gambian marriage counselor arranged the procedure.

“I was awake,” said Dukureh, now 23. “I screamed the whole time when they were doing it.”

“People think that female genital mutilation is an African issue, but it is a U.S. issue,” she said. “You have it everywhere Africans migrate to. I felt like if someone knew what I was talking about, most of the things that happened to me, they wouldn’t have happened.”

I guess we never hear about these things because the local pols are too busy remarking about how Vibrant! and Diverse! immigrants are and are busy trying to cover up the backward practices they brought with them. Joe Crowley's bill mentioned in this piece isn't going to do a thing about the problem, either.

African burial site found at Maple Grove

From the Queens Chronicle:

After 10 months of research, a volunteer Queens historian has uncovered an African burial ground at a Kew Gardens cemetery.

Carl Ballenas last week announced the discovery after investigating a mysterious monument near the Lefferts Boulevard entrance to Maple Grove Cemetery. Armed only with the stone’s vague inscription — “Removals from church vaults at the corner of Prince and Marion streets New York, February 1877” — Ballenas, a social studies teacher who donates his time to Maple Grove, set out to determine the contents below the monument and the narrative behind it.

“It’s a phenomenal thing — history being brought to life here and it was right under our noses,” he noted with a laugh.

The monument is believed to be the marker of the burial site of 308 members of the First Colored Presbyterian Church, which was established in 1822 by the Rev. Samuel Cornish and more commonly known as the Shiloh Presbyterian Church. It was part of the Underground Railroad network of people and places that helped slaves escape, and relocated throughout Manhattan several times, including to a building at the corner of Prince and Marion streets, where it operated for nearly 30 years.

Ballenas said that according to Maple Grove’s interment records, in 1877, the church’s burial vaults were moved to the Queens cemetery, which was just two years old at the time. “Note — Int. 29 — 308 removals from the Presbyt. Ch. Vault New York City, corner of Prince and Marion St.,” reads a note in the 1877 interment ledger.

At peace on a rooftop

From the Daily News:

African immigrants hoping to be granted U.S. asylum have discovered a taste of home on top of the city's largest rooftop farm.

The Refugee Immigrant Fund Asylum Help Center, a Queens nonprofit that aids those fleeing persecution and torture, has partnered with a 40,000 square-foot rooftop farm in Long Island City to give refugees a unique opportunity to work the soil in their new urban home.

"Having contact with the ground is very important for me, even if it's on a roof in a big city like New York." said Erick Kpakpo, 31, from Central Africa, who is waiting to be granted asylum.

Through the fund's Urban Farm Recovery Project, three interns from Africa work two days a week at the Brooklyn Grange farm. Organizers say the program can be healing for the participants and gives them a chance to meet New Yorkers and settle into their new lives in the city.

It hasn't been an easy road to the United States for the immigrants chosen for the project, say organizers noting they faced rape, violence, kidnapping and torture at home and now must deal with the stress of waiting for asylum.

The U.S grants asylum to people who have been persecuted or fear persecution on account of race, religion, nationality or politics.