Woodlawn Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
New York State Register of Historic Places
Main office building
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Location	Webster Avenue and East 233rd Street Woodlawn, Bronx,The Bronx
Coordinates	40°53′21″N73°52′24″W / 40.88917°N 73.87333°W /40.88917; -73.87333
Website	thewoodlawncemetery.org
NRHP reference No.	11000563
NYSRHP No.	00501.001264
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	June 23, 2011
Designated NHL	June 23, 2011
Designated NYSRHP	June 23, 2011

Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largestcemeteries inNew York City and a designatedNational Historic Landmark. Located south ofWoodlawn Heights, Bronx,^[1] it has the character of arural cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery opened during the Civil War in 1863,^[2] in what was thenYonkers, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.^[3] It is notable in part as the final resting place of some well-known figures.

The Cemetery covers more than 400 acres (160 ha)^[2] and is the resting place for more than 300,000 people. Built on rolling hills, its tree-lined roads lead to some unique memorials, some designed by famous architects:McKim, Mead & White,John Russell Pope,James Gamble Rogers,Cass Gilbert,Carrère and Hastings,Sir Edwin Lutyens,Beatrix Jones Farrand, andJohn La Farge. The cemetery contains sevenCommonwealth war graves – six British and Canadian servicemen ofWorld War I and an airman of theRoyal Canadian Air Force ofWorld War II.^[4] In 2011, Woodlawn Cemetery was designated aNational Historic Landmark, since it shows the transition from the rural cemetery popular at the time of its establishment to the more orderly 20th-century cemetery style.^[5]

As of 2007, plot prices at Woodlawn were reported as $200 per square foot, $4,800 for a gravesite for two, and up to $1.5 million for land to build a family mausoleum.^[6]

Woodlawn was the destination for many human remains disinterred from cemeteries in more densely populated parts of New York City:^[7]

• Rutgers Street church graves were moved to Woodlawn. Most graves were re-interred with a stated date of December 20, 1866 into the Rutgers Plot, lots 147–170.^{[citation needed]}
• West Farms Dutch Reformed Church, at Boone Avenue and 172nd Street inThe Bronx, had most of its graves moved to Woodlawn Cemetery in 1867 and interred in the Rutgers Plot, Lots 214–221.^{[citation needed]}
• Bensonia Cemetery, also known as "Morrisania Cemetery", was originally aNative American burial ground. The graves were moved to Woodlawn Cemetery with a stated date of April 21, 1871 and re-interred into Lot 3. Public School #138, inThe Bronx, is now on the site.^{[citation needed]}
• Harlem Church Yard cemetery internees were moved to Woodlawn. Most graves were re-interred with a stated date of August 1, 1871 into the Sycamore Plot, lots 1061–1080.
• Nagle Cemetery remains were moved in November–December 1926 and reinterred in Primrose Plot, Lot 16150. Identities of those interred are apparently unknown.^{[citation needed]}
• The Dyckman-Nagle Burying Ground,^[8] West 212th Street at 9th Avenue, in the Borough ofManhattan, was originally established in 1677 and originally contained 417 plots. In 1905, the remains, with the exception of Staats Morris Dyckman^[9] and his family, were removed. By 1927, the Dyckman graves were finally moved to Woodlawn Cemetery. The former Dutch colonial-era cemetery is now a207th Street subway train yard.^{[citation needed]}

The fictional cemetery of the Synagogue in Brooklyn in the filmOnce Upon a Time in America is actually located here, renamed "Riverdale Cemetery".^[10]

Numerous notable persons have been interred at Woodlawn Cemetery including: Chief Justice of the United StatesCharles Evans Hughes; influential New York urban planner and builderRobert Moses; former CongressmanVito Marcantonio; actressCicely Tyson; actorHarry Carey; Olympic champion swimmerGertrude Ederle; aviation pioneerHarriet Quimby; performer, playwright and producerGeorge M. Cohan; gangsterBumpy Johnson; authorsNellie Bly,Countee Cullen,Clarence Day,Damon Runyon,E.L. Doctorow,Herman Melville, andDorothy Parker;^[11] musiciansIrving Berlin,Miles Davis,Felix Pappalardi,Duke Ellington,Ace Frehley,W. C. Handy,Fritz Kreisler,Pigmeat Markham,King Oliver, andMax Roach; singersCelia Cruz andFlorence Mills; Film directorOtto Preminger; husband and wife magiciansAlexander Herrmann andAdelaide Herrmann; sportswriterGrantland Rice; gunfighter and US marshalBat Masterson; developer of theRolfing body therapy and noted female biochemistIda Rolf; and, businessmen such as shipping magnateArchibald Gracie, cosmetics manufacturerRichard Hudnut, America's first self-made millionaire womanMadam C. J. Walker, department store founderRowland Hussey Macy,^[12][13] and variety store mogulF. W. Woolworth. A large number of New Yorkbrewers (e.g., the Haffens ofHaffen Brewing Company) are interred there on "Brewer's Row",^[14] along with a dozen other brewing scions and their families.^[15] Serbian-Americanelectrical engineer,physicist, inventor, professor at Columbia UniversityMihajlo Pupin

The Woodlawn Conservancy is a501(c)(3) associated with Woodlawn Cemetery. It began as the Friends of Woodlawn in 1999.^[16] It enhances the mission of Woodlawn through fundraising, educational opportunities and outreach with other non-profits. In 2021, over 40 stones were conserved in a joint effort between the Woodlawn Conservancy, the Friends of theRye African-American Cemetery,World Monuments Fund, and theJay Heritage Center.^[17] The preservation effort was launched to coincide with the new federalJuneteenth celebration.

• List of burial places of justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
• List of cemeteries in New York
• List of cemeteries in the United States
• List of mausolea
• List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
• List of New York City Landmarks
• National Register of Historic Places listings in the Bronx
• Rural Cemetery Act

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx) (category)

• Woodlawn Official Page
• Photographs of graves of famous persons in Woodlawn
• Woodlawn Cemetery RecordsArchived June 21, 2017, at theWayback Machine are held by the Drawings and Archives Department of theAvery Architectural and Fine Arts Library,Columbia University

• Cemeteries in the Bronx
• Tourist attractions in the Bronx
• National Historic Landmarks in New York City
• Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
• National Register of Historic Places in the Bronx
• 1863 establishments in New York (state)
• Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
• Rural cemeteries
• Cemeteries established in the 1860s
• New York State Register of Historic Places in Bronx County

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