Moravian Cemetery

In what was a purely farming community, the 113-acre (46 ha) cemetery was originally made available as a free cemetery for the public in order to discourage families from using farm burial plots. The Moravian Cemetery is the burial place for a number of famous Staten Islanders, including members of the Vanderbilt family.[1]

After the closure in the 1880s of the South Reformed Dutch Church in Richmondtown the graves of that church's graveyard were reinterred at Moravian.[2]

In the 19th century, Cornelius Vanderbilt gave the Moravian Church 8 ¹⁄₂ acres (3.4 ha). Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt gave a further 4 acres (1.6 ha) and constructed the residence for the cemetery superintendent. The Vanderbilt mausoleum, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed in 1885–1886, is part of the family's private section within the cemetery. Their mausoleum is a replica of a Romanesque church in Arles, France. The landscaped grounds around the Vanderbilt mausoleum were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Vanderbilt section is not open to the public.[1] The Vanderbilt mausoleum was made a New York City designated landmark in 2016.[3]

A monument to Robert Gould Shaw, a Union soldier who led the first all-black regiment in the American Civil War and died in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, was erected here by his family.[4] The director Martin Scorsese also has a burial plot here.

The cemetery is the burial place for a great many Italian-American Catholics even though it is a Protestant cemetery. This is due to the efforts of Father Ettore Barletta who was in charge of the Italian Mission congregation at the nearby Moravian Church in the early 1900s, spoke fluent Italian and welcomed newly arrived Italian immigrants in the area to attend services.

• Alice Austen (1886–1952), notable 20th Century photographer.
• Thomas Bilotti (1940–1985), Mobster Gambino crime family
• Frank Cali (1965–2019), former reputed boss of the Gambino crime family.
• John Merven Carrère (1858–1911), partner in notable Beaux-Arts architecture firm.
• Paul Castellano (1915–1985), former boss of the Gambino crime family.
• Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965–1988), son of Wyatt Emory Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt.
• Gloria Vanderbilt (1924–2019), heiress and wife of Wyatt Emory Cooper
• Wyatt Emory Cooper (1927–1978), American author, screenwriter, actor, and fourth husband of Gloria Vanderbilt.
• Frank DeCicco (1935–1986), former underboss of the Gambino crime family.
• John Eberhard Faber (1822–1879), German-born American manufacturer of pencils.
• Frank J. LeFevre (1874–1941), Congressman.
• Jim Mutrie (1851-1938), baseball pioneer.
• John L. O'Sullivan (1813–1895), journalist who first utilized in print the phrase Manifest Destiny to embody American expansionist ambitions.
• Anning Smith Prall (1870–1937), Congressman and Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
• Bradhurst Schieffelin (1821–1909), 19th Century social activist.
• Charles Scorsese (1913–1993) and Catherine Scorsese (1912–1997), father and mother of director Martin Scorsese
• Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. (1912–1999), society scion and racetrack/ racehorse owner.
• Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), railroad tycoon.
• Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925), millionaire, equestrian, and gambler.
• Stephen H. Weed (1831–1863), Union General who died in the Battle of Gettysburg.
• Paul Zindel (1936–2003), notable playwright and young adult novelist.

In the novel It's Superman: A Novel, the mother of the character Lex Luthor is buried here.[5] Moravian Cemetery was also seen in Friday the 13th (1980 film) and the 2009 reboot.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moravian Cemetery, Staten Island.

• List of United States cemeteries