| Moravian Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 | |
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| Details | |
| Established | 1740 |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 40°35′02″N74°07′08″W / 40.584°N 74.119°W |
| Size | 113 acres (46 ha) |
| Find a Grave | Moravian Cemetery |
The Moravian Cemetery is a cemetery in the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, United States.
Located at 2205 Richmond Road, the Moravian Cemetery is the largest and oldest active cemetery on Staten Island, having opened in 1740. The cemetery encompasses 113 acres (46 hectares) and is the property of the local Moravian Church congregation of Staten Island. [1] To the cemetery's southwest is High Rock Park, one of the constituent parks of the Staten Island Greenbelt.
In what was a purely farming community, the 113-acre (46 ha) cemetery was originally made available as a free cemetery for the public in order to discourage families from using farm burial plots. 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]
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. [3]
The Moravian Cemetery is the burial place for a number of famous Staten Islanders, including members of the Vanderbilt family. [1] The director Martin Scorsese also has a burial plot here.
In the 19th century, Cornelius Vanderbilt gave the Moravian Church 45 acres (18 ha) of land. Later, his son William Henry Vanderbilt gave a further 4 acres (1.6 ha) and constructed the residence for the cemetery's superintendent.
The Vanderbilt Mausoleum was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and constructed in 1885–1886. It is part of the family's privately owned cemetery, which is not open to the public. [1] The Vanderbilt Mausoleum is a replica of a Romanesque church in Arles, France.
The Vanderbilt family cemetery's landscaping was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Vanderbilt Mausoleum and portions of the cemetery were designated a New York City designated landmark in 2016. [4]
The cemetery is the burial place of 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. Catholic mafia families who had been refused a Catholic burial were offered burials in this cemetery.
In the novel It's Superman: A Novel, the mother of the character Lex Luthor is buried in the Moravian Cemetery. [5]
Constantino Paul Castellano, was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family. Castellano was killed in an unsanctioned hit on December 16, 1985.
Carlo Gambino was an Sicilian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission of the American Mafia until his death from a heart attack on October 15, 1976. During more than 50 years in organized crime, he served only 22 months in prison for a tax evasion charge in 1937.
New Dorp is a neighborhood on the East Shore of Staten Island, New York City, United States. New Dorp is bounded by Mill Road on the southeast, Tysens Lane on the southwest, Amboy and Richmond Roads on the northwest, and Bancroft Avenue on the northeast. It is adjacent to Oakwood to the southwest, Todt Hill to the northwest, Dongan Hills and Grant City, and Midland Beach and Miller Field to the southeast. New Dorp Beach, bordering to the east, is often listed on maps as a separate neighborhood from Mill Road to the shore of Lower New York Bay, but is generally considered to be a part of New Dorp.
Todt Hill is a 401-foot-tall (122 m) hill formed of serpentine rock on Staten Island, New York. It is the highest natural point in the five boroughs of New York City and the highest elevation on the entire Atlantic coastal plain from Florida to Cape Cod. The summit of the ridge is largely covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt, although much of the surrounding area is developed and residential. It is considered one of the most exclusive and most expensive areas of Staten Island.
The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.
Aniello John "Neil" Dellacroce was an American mobster and underboss of the Gambino crime family. He rose to the position of underboss when Carlo Gambino moved Joseph Biondo aside. Dellacroce was a mentor to future Gambino boss John Gotti.
Thomas "Tommy" Bilotti was an American mobster who served as underboss of the Gambino crime family in New York City for two weeks. It was this promotion that helped trigger the 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Castellano; Bilotti would end up killed as well as part of the assassination.
Michael DiLeonardo is a former Italian-American mobster who rose to position of caporegime in the Gambino crime family. In the early 2000s DiLeonardo turned government witness and decided to cooperate with the FBI and managed to convict over 80 mobsters. He was temporarily in a witness protection program.
Joseph "Joe Glitz" Galizia was a New York mobster who became a high-ranking soldier in the Genovese crime family, and ran a large gasoline bootlegging operation.
Frank DeCicco, also known as "Frankie D" and "Frankie Cheech", was an American mobster and eventual underboss for the Gambino crime family in New York City.
James "Jimmy Brown" Failla was an American mobster who was a high ranking caporegime with the Gambino crime family and a major power in the garbage-hauling industry in New York City. Failla's crew was based in Brooklyn, with operations stretching into Staten Island, Manhattan, and New Jersey.
Thomas Cacciopoli, also known as Tommy Sneakers and Cacci, is an American member of the Gambino crime family, holding the rank of caporegime in the Queens, New Jersey, and Westchester faction of the family.
Joseph Vollaro, also known as "Joey V" and "Joe Andrews", is a Staten Island-based American trucking executive and Gambino crime family associate who is now a government informant and witness.
Francesco Paolo Augusto "Frank" Cali, also known as "Franky Boy", was an American mobster and the eventual acting boss of the Gambino crime family. Law enforcement considered Cali to have been the Gambinos' "ambassador to Sicilian mobsters" and had linked him to the Inzerillo Mafia family from Palermo. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Lipton, he was "seen as a man of influence and power by organized crime members in Italy". Cali was shot and killed outside his home in Staten Island on March 13, 2019. At the time of his death, a number of media organizations described him as the "reputed" acting boss of the Gambino crime family.
The Cemetery of the Resurrection is a Catholic cemetery on the southern shore of Staten Island, in New York City.
Philip Mangano was an Italian-born caporegime and second consigliere in what was then the Mangano crime family in New York City and reigned consigliere for 20 years between 1931 and 1951 when his brother, Vincent, was boss.
Daniel Marino is an Italian American mobster and member of the Gambino crime family. He was identified as a member of the family's leadership panel, alongside John Gambino and Bartolomeo Vernace, in 2009.
Queen of Peace Cemetery is a cemetery of the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre in Old Westbury, New York. The land was previously a farm that had been owned for two centuries by the Titus family, and then by the Hitchcock polo family. The land was purchased by the diocese in 1995 at auction from the federal government following seizure from a former owner; however, the Village of Old Westbury delayed construction for over two decades by litigation, which was settled in 2016. The cemetery was opened in 2020, earlier than expected and before the completion of construction, because the COVID-19 pandemic had caused nearby Cemetery of the Holy Rood to run out of space.
The Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum is a private burial site within the Moravian Cemetery in the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City. It was designed by Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century, when the Vanderbilt family was the wealthiest in America.