Trinity Church Cemetery

Church of the Intercession and Trinity Church Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Trinity Church Cemetery at Broadway and Wall Street
Location	Trinity Church (shown): 74 Trinity Place Church of the Intercession: 550 West 155th Street St. Paul's Chapel: 209 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York
Coordinates	40°42′30″N 74°00′42″W / 40.70833°N 74.01167°WCoordinates: 40°42′30″N 74°00′42″W / 40.70833°N 74.01167°W
Built	1697
NRHP Reference #	80002677

A cenotaph marker erected by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers honoring Robert Fulton at Trinity Church.

Trinity Church Cemetery consists of three separate burial grounds associated with Trinity Church in Manhattan, New York, US. The first was established in the Churchyard located at 74 Trinity Place at Wall Street and Broadway. In 1842, the church, running out of space in its churchyard, established Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum in Upper Manhattan between Broadway and Riverside Drive, at the Chapel of the Intercession (now The Church of the Intercession, New York), formerly the location of John James Audubon's estate.^[1] A third burial place is the Churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel.

A no longer extant Trinity Church Cemetery was the Old Saint John's Burying Ground for St. John's Chapel. It was in use from 1806–52 with over 10,000 burials, mostly poor and young. In 1897, it was turned into St. John's Park, with most of the burials left in place. The park was later renamed Hudson Park, and is now James J. Walker Park.^[2]

The burial grounds have been the final resting place for many historic figures since the Churchyard cemetery opened in 1697. A non-denominational cemetery, it is listed in the United States National Register of Historic Places and is the only remaining active cemetery in Manhattan.^[1][3] There are two bronze plaques at the Church of the Intercession cemetery commemorating the Battle of Fort Washington, which included some of the fiercest fighting of the Revolutionary War.

Trinity Church Cemetery, along with Broadway, marks the center of the Heritage Rose District of NYC.^[4]

Notable burials

Trinity Churchyard

• William "Lord Stirling" Alexander (1726–1783), Revolutionary War Continental Army Major General
• John Alsop (1724–1794), delegate to the Continental Congress
• John Jacob Astor (1763–1848) businessman, member of Astor family of New York; founder of Fort Astoria and namesake of Astoria, Oregon (remains are within the Astor Vault located at the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum.)
• Sarah Cox Todd (1761-1834) socialite, wife of John Jacob Astor the founder of the Astor family of New York (Cenotaph only. Remains are within the Astor Vault located at the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum.)
• William Bayard Jr. (1761–1826), prominent New York banker, and his wife Elizabeth Cornell Bayard, daughter of North Carolinian Loyalist Samuel Cornell.
• William Berczy or Johann Albrecht Ulrich Moll (1744–1813), Canadian pioneer and painter
• William Bradford (1660–1752), colonial printer
• Richard Churcher (1676–1681), a child whose grave is marked with the oldest carved gravestone in New York City
• Angelica Schuyler Church (1756–1814), prominent member of society, sister of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton
• Michael Cresap (1742–1775), pre-Revolutionary War hero
• John R. Fellows (1832–1896), U.S. representative
• Robert Fulton (1765–1815), inventor
• Albert Gallatin (1761–1849), member of Congress, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, founder of New York University
• Horatio Gates (1727–1806), Revolutionary War general
• Hoysted Hacker (1745–1814), Continental Navy captain
• Aaron Hackley, Jr. (1783–1868), U.S. representative
• Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), Continental Army officer and military aide to General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, The Federalist Papers initiator and main author, member of the constitutional convention, and founder of the Bank of New York. His life story was turned into one of the most successful Broadway production as of 2016.
• Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (1757–1854), wife of Alexander Hamilton, co-founder and deputy director of New York's first private orphanage ^[5]
• Philip Hamilton (1783–1801), first son of Alexander Hamilton, grandson of U.S. General Philip Schuyler
• John Sloss Hobart (1738–1805), U.S. senator
• William Hogan (1792–1874), U.S. representative
• William Houstoun (1755–1813), delegate to the Continental Congress for whom Houston Street was named.
• James Lawrence (1781–1813), naval hero who died in the War of 1812
• Francis Lewis (1713–1802), signer of the Declaration of Independence
• Walter Livingston (1740–1797), delegate to the Continental Congress

Grave of Lt. Colonel Franklin Wharton, USMC

• Luther Martin (1744–1826), delegate to the Continental Congress
• Charles McKnight (1750–1791), Continental Army surgeon
• John Jordan Morgan (1770–1849), U.S. representative
• Thomas Jackson Oakley (1783–1857), U.S. representative
• John Morin Scott (1730–1784), Revolutionary War general of New York militia, delegate to the Continental Congress, and first secretary of state of New York
• George Templeton Strong (1820–1875), diarist, abolitionist, lawyer
• Robert Swartwout (1779–1848), brigadier general, Quartermaster general of the War of 1812
• Silas Talbot (1750–1813), U.S. Navy commodore, second captain of the USS Constitution
• John Watts (1749–1836), U.S. representative
• Franklin Wharton (1767–1818), Commandant of the Marine Corps, 1804–18.
• Hugh Williamson (1735–1802), signer of the Constitution
• John Peter Zenger (1697–1746), newspaper publisher whose libel trial helped establish the right to a free press

Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum

153rd Street

Riverside Drive

The grave of Alfred Dickens in Trinity Church Cemetery

• Ralph Waldo Ellison, (1914–1994), author and educator
• Mercedes de Acosta (1893–1968), lesbian writer, socialite, lover of Greta Garbo, and a sister of Rita de Acosta Lydig (see below)
• Rita de Acosta Lydig (1876–1929), a famous socialite of the early 1900s who was proclaimed one of the most beautiful women in the world
• William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1792–1875), real estate businessman
• Margaret Alida Rebecca Armstrong (1800-1872), socialite and wife of real estate businessman William Backhouse Astor Sr.
• John Jacob Astor III (1822–1890), financier and philanthropist
• Charlotte Augusta Gibbes (1825–1887), socialite and wife of financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III
• William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1829–1892), businessman and race horse breeder/owner
• Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830–1908), socialite and wife of businessman and race horse breeder/owner William Backhouse Astor Jr.
• John Jacob Astor IV (1864–1912), millionaire businessman killed in the sinking of the RMS Titanic
• Madeleine Talmage Force (1893–1940), socialite and RMS Titanic survivor, second wife of buinessman John Jacob Astor IV
• John Jacob Astor VI (1912–1992), socialite and shipping businessman and only child of John Jacob Astor IV and Madeleine Talmage Force
• Ava Lowle Willing, Lady Ribblesdale (1868-1958), socialite and first wife of John Jacob Astor IV and second wife of Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale
• Emily Astor Van Alen (1854-1881), socialite and wife of James J. Van Alen
• William Backhouse Astor III (1935-2008), businessman and only child of John Jacob Astor VI and Ellen Tuck French
• John James Audubon (1785–1851), ornithologist and naturalist
• Estelle Bennett (1941–2009), member of the 1960s girl group The Ronettes, along with sister Veronica Ronnie Spector, and cousin Nedra Talley.
• John Winthrop Chanler (1826–1877), United States Congressman
• William Astor Chanler (1867–1934), United States Congressman
• William Augustus Darling (1817–1895), United States Congressman
• Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (1845–1912), lecturer on the life of his father, Charles Dickens
• John Adams Dix, (1798–1879) soldier, United States Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, Governor of New York, statesman
• Edward Haight (1817–1885), United States Congressman
• Eliza Jumel (1775–1865), a woman from an impoverished Rhode Island family who later became the wealthiest woman in New York City and the second wife of Aaron Burr.
• Ed Koch (1924–2013), Mayor of New York City
• Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863), pastor to whom authorship of A Visit from St. Nicholas has traditionally been attributed
• Jerry Orbach (1935–2004), actor
• Samuel Seabury (1873–1958), New York City Judge
• Fernando Wood (1812–1881), Mayor of New York City
• Abraham Oakey Hall (1826–1898), Mayor of New York City
• John Romeyn Brodhead (1814–1873) Historian of early colonial New York
• James Monroe (1799–1870), US Congressman

Churchyard of St. Paul's Chapel

• George Frederick Cooke (1756–1812), actor whose skull was used in Edwin Booth's production of Hamlet
• Stephen Rochefontaine (died 1798), Revolutionary War Continental Army officer.
• John Holt (1721–1784), publisher
• Richard Montgomery (1738–1775) Major General in the Continental Army

References

1. Julie Besonen (February 6, 2015). "Resting Place for the High and the Low: The Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights Holds Plenty of History". New York Times.
2. http://nycemetery.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/st-johns-cemetery/
3. Mary Frances Schjonberg (February 4, 2013). "Former New York Mayor Ed Koch laid to rest in Trinity plot". Episcopal News Service.
4. Scott Stringer - Manhattan Borough President. Mbpo.org. Retrieved on 2013-09-07.
5. Chernow, Ron (2005-03-29). "Epilogue". Alexander Hamilton. Penguin. ISBN 9781101200858.

External links

• At Find a Grave: Trinity Churchyard, Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum, Saint Paul's Chapel and Churchyard
• Trinity Church Official Site.
• Hi-Res Photo Gallery of the Trinity Church Cemetery.
• Trinity Tombstone & Churchyard Gallery
• Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum records at Trinity Wall Street Archives