Posted in New York Attractions December 31, 2021 by

This African American Burial Site In New York Is A Historical Wonder In A Shopping Center’s Parking Lot

In a place as old as New York, there are many historical sites. Many are in areas you’d expect: our oldest cities, our historic districts, and so on. One historic cemetery that’s in an unexpected spot in New York is the Mount Moor African American Cemetery. This cemetery has been around for over a century and is the final resting place for many war heroes. What’s most notable about Mount Moor, however, is the fact that it’s right in the middle of a shopping mall parking lot.

The Palisades Center is one of the largest shopping malls in New York. It's the eighth-largest mall in the country and has more than 200 restaurants and stores.
Palisades Center/Google Maps
Other than the size, one of the most noteworthy things about this mall is that there's a cemetery right in the parking lot.
Magicpiano/Wikimedia Commons
Established in 1849, Mount Moor Cemetery has around 90 graves.
Morton Fox/Google Maps
The graveyard is the final resting place for many war veterans. The graves include those of veterans from the Civil War, both World Wars, and the Spanish-American War.
Drew King/Google Maps
Nearly two dozen Civil War veterans are buried in Mount Moor Cemetery. Four of them were born as slaves and fought for their freedom.
When the mall was opened in 1998, the property developers offered to relocate the remains of all buried there. The Mount Moor Cemetery Association refused and so the graves now lie in this parking lot.
Drew King/Google Maps
Some of the graves were worn with age and damaged by vandals. Last year, volunteers worked together to obtain new headstones to replace the most damaged ones.
Morton Fox/Google Maps
Many of the Palisades Center's 20 million annual visitors may not even realize that there is such hallowed ground right on the property.
Drew King/Google Maps

There’s something so tragic about the existence of a historic cemetery filled with war veterans haphazardly located in a shopping mall parking lot. Sadly, segregated cemeteries were the norm in America until the mid-1950s, even for war veterans.

Did you know about this historic cemetery in New York located in a parking lot?

Address: Mount Moor Cemetery, West Nyack, NY 10994, USA

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