Woodland Cemetery (Newark, New Jersey)
| Woodland Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 Gate House, Woodland Cemetery | |
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1855[1] |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 40°43′44″N 74°12′08″W / 40.7289°N 74.2022°W |
| Type | Non-denominational |
| Owned by | Woodland Cemetery Company[2] |
| Size | 36.5-acre (0.148 km2) |
| No. of graves | 80,000+ burials |
| Website | woodlandcemeterynnj.org |
| Find a Grave | Woodland Cemetery |
Woodland Cemetery (also known as West Newark Cemetery or the German Cemetery) is a 36.5-acre (0.148 km2) non-sectarian burial ground located at 670 South 10th Street in the city of Newark, New Jersey. Established in 1855 and active until the 1980s, the cemetery served the city's German immigrant population and their descendants, and later a large number of Greek immigrant and African-American graves.
Overview
[edit]The cemetery is owned by its lot owners.[3] It has a board of managers who have family buried in the cemetery.[4]
About 70,000 to 80,000 people have been buried there.[5][6] The cemetery includes hundreds of veterans, including from the Civil War up to the Vietnam War.[4] As of 2017, it is open for new burials.[3]
History
[edit]Woodland Cemetery is one of Newark's oldest cemeteries.[7] Since the 1960s and the urban decline of Newark, many of the descendants of the German immigrants and families buried here moved away from the city. As early as the 1950s and 1960s,[8][9] and accelerating in later years, Woodland Cemetery experienced vandalism and the toppling of several thousand gravestones. For many years, it was neglected and fell into disrepair.
In the mid-1990s, some people with family members buried in the cemetery organized a Friends and Family of Woodland Cemetery group to recruit and organize volunteers and donations for cleanup work, including resetting gravestones.[7] In 2008, local residents gathered to protest the large amount of trash and illegal activity in the cemetery, asking the cemetery board and the city to clean it up.[10]
Recently, the burial ground's cemetery association was reorganized with a mission to manage and restore the cemetery and has organized efforts with local community groups and with descendants of the families buried at Woodland.
Notable burials
[edit]- Ike Quebec (1918–1963), tenor saxophonist and jazz musician[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Geisheimer, Glenn G. "Woodland Cemetery". Newark Cemeteries. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
- ^ "NJ DEP - Historic Preservation Office New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places: Essex County" (PDF). 2012-10-11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
- ^ a b Johnson, Anthony (October 31, 2017). "Graveyard horror in the middle of New Jersey's largest city". ABC7 New York. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
- ^ a b "Demanding Answers: Why Is Newark Cemetery Being Neglected?". CBS New York. 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
- ^ a b Remnick, Noah (March 19, 2017). "A Historic New Jersey Cemetery Sits Neglected and Blighted". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
- ^ Demasters, Karen (August 5, 2001). "ON THE MAP; Lost Worlds Interred in a Neglected Newark Cemetery". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
- ^ a b Cummings, Charles (April 29, 1999). "Woodland's Monuments to City's Legends Must Stand Tall Again". Knowing Newark: Charles F. Cummings, The Star-Ledger Columns. The Newark Public Library. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ "Woodland Cemetery Vandalism Renewed". Newark Evening News. May 4, 1954. p. 71. Retrieved 2024-11-13 – via Newark Public Library Community History Archive.
- ^ Kuperstein, Hy (August 27, 1962). "Vandalism is Target: Cemetery Desecrators Stir All-Out Drive by Police". The Newark Evening News. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-11-13 – via Newark Public Library Community History Archive.
- ^ "Wheels in motion to clean up historic Newark cemetery". News 12 New Jersey. March 16, 2008. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
