New York Marble Cemetery

You are approaching a place that looks like a quiet, hidden garden, but beneath the grass lies a silent grid of underground history. The New York Marble Cemetery was born from the terror of yellow fever in the early nineteenth century. When city authorities banned earth burials to prevent the spread of disease, developers responded by creating this sanctuary of 156 subterranean vaults. They chose solid white Tuckahoe marble for the construction, believing the stone would act as a barrier against the miasma or harmful vapors they feared were carried by the deceased. Today, there are no headstones here to mark the resting places of the more than 2,000 people interred below. Instead, the names of the original vault owners are etched into marble tablets set directly into the perimeter walls, leaving the interior space as a serene, open lawn.