Place:Van Alst Cemetery, Queens, New York, United States

The Van Alst Cemetery is an inactive family cemetery in Long Island City, Queens, New York, which was obscured by development after 1873. An 1873 atlas estimated the boundaries of the cemetery as a slightly trapezoidal plot of approximately 10,700 square feet (as loosely reconstructed on Google maps) located at the south west corner of the southern end of West Street (a small spur street running south from Jackson Avenue), approximately one block south of Queens Plaza, between Jackson Avenue and the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

The cemetery is in the process of being investigated and remains likely need to be removed prior to destruction of the cemetery for the development of a 42 story tower at the Gotham Center in early 2015.

The cemetery went inactive prior to 1887, when six tombstones were still visible. In 1925 some remains were uncovered during a construction project and removed to Cypress Hills Cemetery. Research on the number and identity of remains in the cemetery is needed. In 1925 Harry Van Alst indicated that he thought burials had been removed previously (possibly the six burials still visible in 1887) and he arranged for the remains unearthed during construction in 1925 to be removed to Cypress Hills Cemetery.

However, the inferred cemetery size of 10,000 square feet is similar to other family cemeteries in Queens which are known to hold at least 80-140 burials, based on the remaining visible tombstones in 1919 (not counting burials for which the stone is lost) and there is no historical record of removals at that scale. A 2001 and subsequent 2003 report indicate: "The Phase 1A archaeological survey concluded that "the subsurface disturbance record suggests that there is still the possibility that undisturbed burials exist within the potential development site, on Block 264 and along West Street and beneath the railroad siding [that served the West Disinfecting Company and runs along the south side of the building] and right-of-way"" http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/arch_reports/610.pdf

The cemetery is associated with the family of Joris Steven Van Alst^{[1] [2]}, who arrived in New Amsterdam (New York) in 1652 and for whom no other burial location has been discovered. Relatives associated with the Van Alsts and possibly interred in the cemetery also include "Hunter, Parsalls, Bragaw, and Paynter"^[3].

Queens cemeteries which may have similar characteristics

• Burroughs Cemetery, Elmhurst
• Moore Cemetery, Woodside
• Riker Cemetery, North Beach, surveyed in 1919, at approximately 75 x 175 feet (13,000 square feet) with at least 131 burials visible and located at that time
• Luyster Cemetery, North Beach
• Rapelje Cemetery, Steinway
• Mott Cemetery, Maspeth
• Brinkerhoff Cemetery, Blackstump
• Lawrence Cemetery, Bayside (Steinway?), 250 x 150 feet (37,500 square feet) with at least 89 burials visible in 1919
• Wyckoff-Snedicker Cemetery, Richmond Hill, 81 x 250 feet (20,000 square feet) with at least 136 burials visible in 1919
• Cemetery on Duryea Farm
• Remsen Cemetery, Hopedale
• Cornell Cemetery, Little Neck
• Alsop Cemetery within Calvary Cemetery
• Cumberson Cemetery at Queens Blvd & Betts Ave
• Private Cemetery on Pullis Farm
• Willet Burying Ground

Research Project Sources

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rclarke/page1/valst.htm
• apparently there is a 1924 typescript Van Alst family history somewhere
• http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2015/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Star/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Star%201925/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Star%201925%20-%200543.pdf
• http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/arch_reports/610.pdf
• Source:Beers,_F._W._Atlas_of_Long_Island,_New_York
• Source:Frost, Josephine C. Long Island Cemeteries : In 13 Volumes
• Source:Queens, New York, United States. Long Island Gravestone Inscriptions
• Source:Eardeley, William Applebie. Cemeteries in Kings and Queens Counties, Long Island, New York online at https://archive.org/details/cemetriesinkings00eard
• Source:Queens, Queens, New York, United States. Description of Private and Family Cemeteries in the Borough of Queens and Source:Queens, New York, United States. Description of Private and Family Cemeteries in the Borough of Queens online at http://longislandgenealogy.com/QueensCem.pdf
• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/nyregion/long-in-repose-last-remnants-of-founding-family-van-alst-will-leave-long-island-city.html
• Source:Riker,_James._Annals_of_Newtown_in_Queens_County,_New-York online at https://archive.org/details/annalsofnewtowni00rike
• Source:Loveless,_Richard_William._Twenty_Long_Island_Families available as microfilm or at the Family History Library 974.721 D2L

Van Alst family background

"This name is derived from the estate or manor house of Alst, anciently in the possession of this family, who, in accordance with the custom of that time, were designated as of {van) Alst. This manor is that district in Flanders which still bears the name of Alst, lying between the rivers Scheld and Dender, and having a capital of the same name." ^[1]

Possible burials

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Source:Riker,_James._Annals_of_Newtown_in_Queens_County,_New-York
2. ↑ Source:Loveless,_Richard_William._Twenty_Long_Island_Families
3. ↑ [1]