The Cemetery of the Evergreens, also called The Evergreens Cemetery, is a non-denominational rural cemetery along the Cemetery Belt in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City. It was incorporated in 1849, not long after the passage of New York's Rural Cemetery Act spurred development of cemeteries outside Manhattan. For a time, it was the busiest cemetery in New York City; in 1929 there were 4,673 interments. Today, the Evergreens is the final resting place of more than 526,000 people. ()
The cemetery borders Brooklyn and Queens and covers of rolling hills and gently sloping meadows. It features several thousand trees and flowering shrubs in a park-like setting. Cypress Hills Cemetery lies to its northeast. The Most Holy Trinity Cemetery (established in 1851), which is known for having metal headstones, borders the cemetery on the northwest in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn."Our Cemeteries", Catholic Cemeteries Diocese of Brooklyn website, 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2026.
History The Evergreens was built on the principle of the rural cemetery. Two of the era's most noted landscape architects, Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis, were instrumental in the layout of the cemetery grounds.
The Evergreens has a monument to six victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911 who were unidentified for nearly a century. In 2011, Michael Hirsch, a historian, completed four years of research that identified these victims by name (see ).
There are also seventeen British Commonwealth service personnel buried in the cemetery: thirteen from World War I and four from World War II. Breakdown obtained from casualty record.
The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 2007. In 2025, cemetery officials announced plans to spend $20 million on a stargazing observatory, since amateur astronomers frequently met there.
Notable burials
Individual graves
John Bunny (1863–1915), actor George C. Bennett (1824–1885), newspaper publisher and New York State assemblyman Albert Levi Burt (1843–1913), eponymous founder of the publisher A. L. Burt Anthony Comstock (1844–1915), censor (see Comstock Law) William C. Cooper (1853–1918), silent-film actor Edward Copland (1793–1859), mayor of Brooklyn Bill Dahlen (1870–1950), Major League Baseball player, one of the outstanding early 20th century players. Lies in an unmarked grave James E. Davis (1962–2003), New York City councilman (he was originally interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, but after it was realized that his assassin was also interred there, he was moved to the Cemetery of the Evergreens) Thomas Dilward (1817–1887), Minstrel performer credited with having invented the word "hunky-dory" George Henry Ellis (1875–1898), A chief yeoman on the USS Brooklyn Alice Fleming (1882–1952), actress, stage and screen Effie Germon (1845–1914), Stage actress descended from the Germons of Baltimore, an old theatrical family Adelaide Hall (1901–1993), singer, actress, dancer, nightclub chanteuse George Hall (1849–1923), Major League Baseball player, banned from baseball for life Yusef Hawkins (1973–1989), murder victim Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904), artist Lucille Hegamin (1894–1970), singer, female pioneer of the Blues Nelson H. Henry (1855–1923), member of the New York State Assembly, Adjutant General of New York William Hickey (1927–1997), actor Martin Hildebrandt (1825–1890), early tattoo artist Fanny Janauschek (1829–1904), Czech-born stage actress Ernest A. Janson (1878–1930) highly decorated United States Marine, earned two Medals of Honor for his heroic actions in World War I Joseph Forsyth Johnson (1840–1906), landscape architect and great-grandfather of Bruce Forsyth George H. Lindsay (1837–1916), congressman George W. Lindsay (1865–1938), congressman, his son Winsor McCay (1872–1934), cartoonist and animated cartoon pioneer Antonio "Tony" Pastor (1837–1908), vaudevillian Charles A. Read (1837–1865), American Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878–1949), tap dancer Stephen A. Rudd (1874–1936), congressman Assotto Saint (1947–1994), poet, publisher and performance artist Joseph Thuma Schenck (c. 1891–1930), vaudevillian, better known as "Joe" Schenck, of the comedy singing team Van and Schenck Gardiner Spring (1785–1873), American minister and author William Steinitz (1836–1900), world chess champion Bob Thiele (1922–1996), record producer Amy Vanderbilt (1908–1974), journalist, etiquette authority Oscar Walker (1854–1889), Major League Baseball player John William Warde (c. 1912–1938), his widely publicized suicide inspired the movie Fourteen Hours. Horace Weston (1825–1890), banjo player Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849–1908), musician Lester Young (1909–1959), jazz musician
Group monument Triangle Shirtwaist fire – the bodies of six victims of the 1911 fire to be identified were buried under a monument of a kneeling woman. They could not be identified after the inferno because they were burned beyond recognition, and had been buried without names. A century after the tragedy, in 2011, they were identified by historian Michael Hirsch as Maria Giuseppa Lauletti, Max Florin, Concetta Prestifilippo, Josephine Cammarata, Dora Evans, and Fannie Rosen.
See also List of United States cemeteries
References
Further reading Rousmaniere, John. Green Oasis in Brooklyn: The Evergreens Cemetery 1849–2008. (2008)
External links
The Evergreens Cemetery official home page