East Second Street boasts two small, well-maintained cemeteries, one visible from the street, one hidden from view. New York Marble Cemetery, organized in 1830, and New York City Marble Cemetery, from 1832, are not two locations of the same cemetery, but separate organizations!
New York Marble Cemetery is located within the block bounded by the Bowery, 2nd Avenue, and East 2nd and East 3rd Streets, and its only public reminder is a locked gate emblazoned with he cemetery’s name on 2nd Avenue. Unusually, there are no headstones there: the interred, in vaults, are identified by inscriptions on inlaid tablets on the perimeter wall.
New York City Marble Cemetery fronts on East 2nd St. between 1st and 2nd Avenues. President James Monroe was briefly interred here. Preserved Fish, of the famed New York City family, occupies a vault here. “Preserved” is a traditional Quaker name.
5/3/13