The Leverich Family Burial Ground is an abandoned 17th century burial site in the heart of Jackson Heights.
This small family burial ground, hidden behind homes and businesses along Leverich St and 35th Ave, in Jackson Heights, Queens, is all that remains of the colonial homestead established by Caleb Leverich in the 17th century, in what was then the Trains Meadow section of old Newtown, Long Island. Caleb was the son of English minister William Leverich, who immigrated to America in 1633. The Leveriches became a prominent Newtown family and their old homestead, originally built by Caleb in 1670, stood nearby the burial ground until it burned down in 1909.
When the cemetery was first used is unknown. Nineteenth-century historian James Riker recorded the 33 headstones that were present in the cemetery in 1842; the earliest was that of Caleb’s grandson John Leverich, who died in 1780. The cemetery appears to have fallen out of use during the mid-1800s, around which time the Leverich homestead seems to have passed out of the family. Although the cemetery was abandoned as family members moved out of the area, the plot was excluded from the development that sprung up around it in the early 20th century.
City property records still identify the site as the Leverich Family Burial Ground, but there is nothing left to distinguish it as such. All of the headstones have disappeared, there are no signs identifying it as a burial ground. Leverich Family Burial Ground is now regularly cared for by neighborhood groups and used as a community space. Local artist Carlos Amador a.k.a. Honexl created the mural in the entrance of the cemetery called Pachamama.
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Entry to the Leverich Family Burial Ground is through an alley on the south side of 35th Avenue at the intersection of 71st Street. The alley is located between the Animal Hospital and Lin's Kitchen, a Chinese restaurant. The cemetery is about 200 feet into the alley, with the entrance on the right, just past some garages.
* NOTE * You do not need to ENTER the cemetery to retreive the cache!