Moore-Jackson Cemetery

Moore-Jackson Cemetery
The cemetery in 2014
Details
Established	1733–1868
Location	Queens, New York
Coordinates	40°45′22″N 73°54′28″W / 40.75611°N 73.90778°W / 40.75611; -73.90778
Size	104.5 ft × 223.3 ft (32 m × 68 m)
No. of interments	approximately 48
New York City Landmark
Designated	March 18, 1997[1]
Reference no.	1956[1]

The Moore-Jackson Cemetery is a historic cemetery in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens in New York City, active from 1733 to about 1868. It is one of New York City's few remaining 18th-century cemeteries and is a New York City designated landmark. The burial ground occupies a five-sided site on 51st and 54th Streets between 31st and 32nd Avenues. While the cemetery spans about 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²), all of the surviving tombstones are placed along 54th Street. The cemetery was part of the estate of Samuel and Charity Moore, members of one of Queens's oldest families, and contains approximately 48 corpses.

The Moores bought the land in 1684 and owned it for over a century. Many of the cemetery's interments are family members of John, Nathaniel, and Mary Moore, three of the Moores' ten children. The tombstone of Augustine Moore (d. 1769) is the oldest that still retains an inscription, as many of the 18th-century tombstones have degraded to the point of illegibility. Though the family estate was sold several times after 1827, interments continued until 1869. John C. Jackson, a member of the Moore family, bought additional land near the cemetery in 1867.

The Moore/Jackson family continued to care for the site until about 1910, after which the cemetery fell into severe disrepair. A survey in 1919 found 42 gravestones. After the cemetery underwent a period of disrepair, Works Progress Administration workers relocated the remaining tombstones in 1935 and raised the land. The New York City government seized the cemetery in 1954, and a fence was erected around it two years later. The cemetery deteriorated yet again through the late 20th century, though local resident Cecile Pontecorvo maintained it starting in 1974. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the graveyard as a landmark in 1997 following an unsuccessful attempt in the 1970s. The Queens Historical Society bought the Moore-Jackson Cemetery from the Moores' last remaining descendant in 1999 and subsequently restored it. A community garden was established in the cemetery in 2018.