Machpelah Cemetery (North Bergen, New Jersey)

Machpelah Cemetery in North Bergen sits on land that once held a celebrated, exotic botanical attraction known as the Frenchman's Garden. In the late eighteenth century, the King of France commissioned the noted botanist André Michaux to cultivate this site with rare plants collected from across the globe. The garden was enclosed within a grand stone wall and served as a specialized hub for importing international flora for the burgeoning United States. Today, the quiet rows of headstones cover the ground where these rare specimens once flourished under the care of the gardener Pierre-Paul Saunier.