Cemeteries
The Manhattan population has evolved over time and since the establishment of the island, cemeteries have defined the outskirts of communities and neighborhoods of certain groups of demographics. These are different populations but it’s a constant footprint of these communities. As populations grew and expanded north they found the need to expand past there original borders and expand there neighborhoods and move further North or to other areas of Manhattan depending on the group.
These cemeteries now exist as vacant spaces that will not be built on. Building are knocked down, rebuilt and renovated but cemeteries continue to exist. In 1851 cemeteries were banned from being created within Manhattan and those who passed away were buried in other boroughs of New York City.
West of 6th Ave is one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries. Trinity church cemetery is a historic cemetery too. During an excavation in the civic center district of lower Manhattan. an African American cemetery was found. All of these plots of land are markers of time and even depict the years of peoples lives on gravestones. It’s not an archeological dig but these areas have just as much history to offer.
These may shows who used to live in those areas but it would be even more interesting to find out where they went and why. It would be interesting if our class took the time to study some of the cemeteries within Manhattan to see what type of people are buried in those respective locations and then see where those demographics have shifted over time. If those cemeteries had represented the original boundaries of communities where have those populations gone or are they still sticking around?
Cemeteries are one of the few homogenous things within Manhattan, an ever changing and ever growing place. These are some of the few permanent markers that could allow us to do an interesting analysis on the shift of the people within New York City of people and their neighborhoods shifted from their original placement.
