Tombstones in The Evergreens Cemetery with the Manhattan skyline in the background — photo by Diego Cupolo

The Evergreens Cemetery is more than a final resting place — within its 225-acres of smooth hills and sprawling meadows visitors will find scenic views of Manhattan, towering trees, rare migrating birds and colorful stories from New York City’s past.

Established in 1849, the non-sectarian cemetery covers Bushwick’s southeast corner and continues into Queens. The Evergreens is home to more than half a million graves and there aren’t many people that know more about the land’s rich history than Danny Daddario, a cemetery employee who regularly gives walking tours through the burial ground.

Danny’s full of quirky stories from the times of yore and will gladly talk about his father’s old job at the Evergreens or how his grandmother grew up in East New York and would play in the graveyard as a child.

“Back then, there were two things people did on the weekends,” Danny said. “They went to Niagara Falls on Friday or Saturday, and on Sunday they would have picnics with their families in the cemetery. They would lay down blankets near the plot of land where their relatives were buried and had these huge feasts.”

Cemetery Historian Danny Daddario stands behind the grave of Capt. Robert Fairchild — notice the Mason’s logo on the bottom of the tombstone. — photo by Diego Cupolo

The highlights of the tours are the dramatic stories Danny will recall when he passes by the tombstones of notable individuals. Standing before the grave of William Anthony, we learned that this alcoholic marine was on the U.S.S. Maine when it exploded in Havana Harbor — the event that sparked the Spanish American War in 1898.

Thanks to Danny’s extensive research, we also learned Anthony began to lose his sanity after the war. He was asked to re-enact the scene of the explosion so many times that it drove him to walk up to a couple of police officers in Central Park and drink a bottle of super-toxic liquid cocaine — a concoction that killed him on the spot.

The cemetery also holds the graves of Adelaide Hall, a famous jazz scat singer; Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a tap dancer who was most celebrated for his work with Shirley Temple; and Thomas Wiggins, a blind slave who became a musical prodigy on the piano. Wiggins, or “Blind Tom,” composed songs like “The Rainstorm,” [mp3] where he imitated the sound of raindrops hitting the tin roof of his shed during storms.

Celebrities aside, Danny estimates 3,000 soldiers from the Civil War are buried in the Evergreens. Visitors will also find the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers that were exhumed from small Manhattan church graveyards and relocated to Brooklyn. The cemetery even preserves one of the last remaining parts of the Rockaway Foot Path, an old Native American shortcut that gave the redcoats an advantage over George Washington’s Continental Army in the Battle of Long Island — a devastating blow that led to the British capture of New York City.

The stories buried in the Evergreens are virtually endless and Danny has been working hard to uncover them for the benefit of the public. Even if history is not your biggest interest, the cemetery’s hills offer spectacular overlooks of the city from Jamaica Bay to Midtown. The land itself vibrates with a serene detachment from time. Visitors are sparse so you can easily get lost on the winding paths and watch red-tailed hawks silently glide through the air.

The next week or so will be a great time to visit the cemetery with a camera since the fall foliage has past its peak. With half a million graves, there’s always a chance of finding something new — and for $1,550 you could even have your own tombstone in the Evergreens.

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