First Shearith Israel Graveyard
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First Shearith Israel Graveyard
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| Location | 55-57 Saint James Place, Manhattan, New York City, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°42′45″N 73°59′54″W / 40.71250°N 73.99833°WCoordinates: 40°42′45″N 73°59′54″W / 40.71250°N 73.99833°W |
| Area | Less than 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1682 |
| NRHP Reference # | 80002689 |
| Added to NRHP | April 17, 1980 |
First Shearith Israel Graveyard — also known as Chatham Square Cemetery — is a tiny Jewish graveyard at 55-57 St James Place in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York. It is the oldest of three Manhattan graveyards currently maintained by Congregation Shearith Israel (Hebrew, "Remnant of Israel"), which is itself the oldest Jewish congregation in North America. (The Congregation was formed by Spanish and Portuguese Sephardic Jewish immigrants in 1654.) Today, the cemetery is a mere fragment of its original extent. Only about a hundred headstones and above ground tombs can still be seen in what remains of the old burial ground, which rises slightly above street level. It is the only remaining 17th century structure in Manhattan.
What is now called the "First Shearith Israel Graveyard," near Chatham Square in Lower Manhattan, was in use from 1683 to 1833. An older cemetery dating to 1656 — two years after the community arrived — is no longer extant. The site for First Shearith Israel Graveyard was originally on a hill overlooking the East River in an open area at the northern periphery of the British-Dutch colonial settlement. The plot was purchased in 1682 by Joseph Bueno de Mesquita, and its first interment was for his relative, Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita, the following year. The cemetery expanded in the 1700s so that at one point it extended from Chatham Square over what is now the upper part of Oliver Street down to Bancker (now Madison) Street.
In a letter in 1776, a staff officer of General George Washington recommended emplacing an artillery battery "at the foot of the Jews' burying ground" to help secure Long Island Sound. In 1823, a city ordinance prohibited burials south of Canal Street, compelling the congregation to rely on its second burial ground, consecrated in 1805 at West 11th Street in Greenwich Village. (Notwithstanding this, a few more burials took place at Chatham Square up to 1833.) Much of this burden was alleviated in 1829, when Shearith Israel’s third cemetery was consecrated at 21st Street just west of 6th Avenue.
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