Families fear development will encroach on Greenlawn Cemetery — site of historic Black, Indigenous graves

Surrounded by a chain-link fence, Greenlawn Cemetery holds the remains of more than 375 Black and Indigenous people who died in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Running alongside a railroad track in Wyandanch, the cemetery's small opening is camouflaged by trees and overgrown shrubs. The pathways are dirt indentations through brown, knee-high grass that lead to small clearings. The only signs are warnings: "No Trespassing." 

The 11-acre grounds offer little indication of a historic cemetery, aside from a few headstones visible from just beyond a fence along North 28th Street. It's 2 miles from the bright-green manicured lawns, detailed signage and intricately laid-out road network of Pinelawn Cemetery's 500-acre grounds. 

Descendants of those buried at Greenlawn say the backward L-shaped property is neglected and forgotten. Heightening those concerns is a proposal for a 100-acre industrial park — the largest Babylon Town development in decades — that would abut Greenlawn Cemetery. 

Joi Jackson Perle, 63, of East Hampton, who has two relatives buried in Greenlawn, said she worries about trespassers and vandals. On Thursday, fallen leaves coated the ground, covering the few grave markers. Beer bottles lay strewn outside the cemetery fence, and an "open house" sign was tossed near the graves.

"It should not even be in the state it is in now, and further deterioration is sure to follow if this project goes forward," Jackson Perle said.

The San Francisco-based Bristol Group wants to build the industrial park on land leased from Pinelawn, which also owns Greenlawn Cemetery. A total of 40 companies would make up nine one-story buildings as part of a new Suffolk Technology Park, according to the proposal.

Tom Crist, 70, a former Suffolk County police officer, has devoted much of his retirement to helping others research loved ones' graves in remote or forgotten cemeteries. Crist said he only discovered Greenlawn in May 2023 while helping someone locate a relative who is buried there. 

"Pinelawn Cemetery is probably one of the most beautiful, well-kept cemeteries in the country — except for this little section," Crist, of Melville, said of Greenlawn. "They really haven’t taken care of it to the same standards as the rest of their cemetery." 

A push to preserve

According to Crist, there are at least 375 individuals — mostly Black and Indigenous people — who were reinterred on the 11-acre site from cemeteries in Roslyn and Brooklyn in 1899 and 1903, respectively.

The individuals are mostly buried in unmarked graves. The eastern section of the cemetery includes some grave markers and headstones for people who died later in the 20th century. Most of the cemetery inhabitants were originally buried in Salem A.M.E Church’s Mt. Zion Cemetery in Roslyn and Bridge Street A.W.M.E Church’s Union Cemetery in Brooklyn. But they were reinterred in Greenlawn after the Roslyn and Brooklyn properties were sold.

On Pinelawn’s website map, the area is marked only as Greenlawn East. There are no numbered grids to identify gravesites, a feature available for most other Pinelawn graves. When researching the names of those buried in Greenlawn, a grave locator points to Pinelawn’s administration building, but not to any graves in Greenlawn.

In June, Babylon Town historian Mary Cascone wrote a letter to town officials calling for a better cemetery plan.

"I strongly recommend that detailed plans for the future maintenance of and access to Greenlawn Cemetery, and its history, be detailed by Pinelawn Memorial Park, as part of the proposed industrial park project," she wrote. "Conveying information about and access to Greenlawn Cemetery should be part of their current and future operating plans."

Cascone wrote that she is "very concerned that this parcel of Greenlawn Cemetery is vulnerable to being ‘forgotten.’ "

In Bristol’s draft environmental impact statement, there are no "current plans or improvements proposed" for the cemetery. The 343-page report says there will be a 12-foot-high soundwall between Greenlawn and one of the warehouses. Existing woods also will be used as a buffer to protect Greenlawn Cemetery, the report says. Bristol officials declined to comment.

"By doing this development it seems like they’re just kind of closing the door on this section being included as part of Pinelawn and brought up to the same standards as the rest of Pinelawn," Crist said.

Katherine Heaviside, a spokeswoman for Pinelawn, said the cemetery is not a part of the land where the technology park is being built.

"There will be no shared access between the two lots, and they will be separated by significant buffering, including a tall tree-line buffer of at least 100 feet, which is more than twice the standard buffer surrounding other Pinelawn properties," Heaviside said.

Roots in Roslyn, Brooklyn

Carol Clarke is an archivist for the Bryant Library in Roslyn who has done extensive research on the Salem A.M.E. church and its former cemetery inhabitants who were reinterred in Greenlawn.

The church's Mt. Zion Cemetery is described in an 1899 Brooklyn Eagle newspaper article as the "burying ground of the colored people of North Hempstead."

According to the article, Roslyn resident "Mrs. Clarence Mackay" wanted to expand her Harbor Hills estate onto the cemetery property and struck a deal to buy and deed to the church 8 acres of Greenlawn for the reinterred remains. In addition, she paid "$1 for the corpse and 50 cents excursion for mourners" by train to Greenlawn, according to the article.

Some of those buried there likely were enslaved to wealthy North Shore families, she said. Many of the graves represent a cross section of prominent families in the community, including some surnames that still populate Long Island today: Appleby, Hicks, Pearsall and Eato.

"I understand that you really can’t stop development, but I think in some way this cemetery needs to be recognized, and the public needs to know that it exists," Clarke said. It should be "protected as a sacred spot" that gives the "opportunity for people to visit," she said.

Sandi Brewster-walker, executive director of the Montaukett Nation, is writing a book that will include a chapter on the Greenlawn graves. She said some of the surnames on the graves — such as Jackson, Fowler and Mayhew — are “clearly” Indigenous.

“I consider it a sacred site for them, and we need to continue to identify their descendants,” she said.

'A lost piece of history'

In 1903 after the Bridge Street A.W.M.E Church cemetery in Brooklyn closed, at least 28 people were reinterred in Greenlawn into three burial plots, said Linda Rhodes Jones, 80, of Brooklyn, who is history chair of the church’s board of trustees. But she suspects there may be more. There have also been several people buried since, according to headstones at the site, including one as recently as 1998.

Four of those buried there were Civil War soldiers, Jones said. Crist worked to get plaques from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to honor the soldiers, who served in the 20th and 26th regiment of the "United States Colored Troops." Through his research, Crist learned that the men — all from Brooklyn who served in the South — were farmers who survived the war. 

"Our concern is that it will be cut off and forgotten," Jones said of Greenlawn. "I just think it will be a lost piece of history unless we honor it."

Jackson Perle has two relatives who were reinterred from Brooklyn into Greenlawn. She said she fears the cemetery will "fall into a further state of despair and disrepair" if the industrial park is built.

"Everyone talks a good game when they want approval on projects like this, but who is really going to prevent Greenlawn from being completely trashed?" she said. "This is a sad way to treat one's relatives and ancestors, not just mine, but any family."

Heaviside said that in the past, Greenlawn Cemetery and the 100 acres around it had been "subject to vandalism, illegal dumping, and trespassing, including unauthorized ATV use, despite repeated attempts by Pinelawn to protect the properties." Fences were knocked down and it was "very hard to maintain a standard of care," she said.

Building the new industrial park will "allow Pinelawn to better secure both properties from these destructive activities and implement a beautification plan for the cemetery," Heaviside said.

Pinelawn plans to add flowers and ornamental trees, and install more signs and benches and a smart irrigation system to water the grounds, she said. There would also be a new entrance to Greenlawn on 28th Street, with "curbed, paved parking spaces," Heaviside said.

Pinelawn plans to create a digital map for the property, Heaviside said.

Paying tribute

Carolyn Brown, 58, of Copiague, began researching her family tree more than 20 years ago. Clarke helped Brown track down her relatives who had been moved from the Salem cemetery in Roslyn to Greenlawn. 

"You would not think that what is back there is a cemetery — you would just think it’s woods," Brown said. "They were segregated in life and now they are segregated in death."

Brown created a short documentary on the experience titled, "No Longer Forgotten." She aims to do more research into all of the cemetery's inhabitants and bring their stories to life through a play or documentary.

"This is for a whole community who does not have a voice for themselves anymore," Brown said. She said she prays that if the industrial park is built, the public can "respect where the people are laying." 

Cascone said it's common for historic cemeteries such as Greenlawn to get swallowed up by residential and commercial developments.

"It’s practically the story of Long Island," she said. Cemeteries become "just literally overshadowed" while a cemetery that becomes overgrown "almost encapsulates itself."

Crist has created a virtual cemetery on the website Find a Grave for Greenlawn that lists 375 names. He said he hopes it will help the loved ones of those buried there. But Crist said it's paramount that Pinelawn properly acknowledges and cares for Greenlawn. 

"You think of a cemetery as a place of comfort where people go to remember their family members and maybe sit there and contemplate the lives they had," Crist said. "It should be something that’s welcoming, that’s relaxing, that’s comfortable and gives you peace. And this is basically just an overgrown field."

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.