Rural Cemetery Act

The Rural Cemetery Act was a law passed by the New York Legislature on April 27, 1847, that authorized commercial burial grounds in rural New York state. The law led to burial of human remains becoming a commercial business for the first time, replacing the traditional practice of burying the dead in churchyards and on private farmland. One effect of the law was the development of a large concentration of cemeteries along the border between the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.

The law's enactment came during an era when a burgeoning urban population was crowding out Manhattan churchyards traditionally used for burials and the concept of the rural cemetery on the outskirts of a city was becoming stylish.

The law authorized nonprofit entities to establish cemeteries on rural land and sell burial plots, and it exempted from property taxation land that was so used. A few rural cemeteries had been established in New York before the new law was passed (including Green-Wood Cemetery in 1838 and Albany Rural Cemetery in 1844), but the law's passage soon led to the establishment of more new cemeteries near Manhattan, particularly in western Queens. The Act was significant because it was made it easier to establish charitable corporations for rural cemeteries. This Act was part of the larger movement for general incorporation statutes, so that those wishing to form corporations no longer needed to get a special act passed by the state legislature. This facilitated the development of corporations, which were seen as assisting in the development of a cultivate, Christian republic. This was part of co-operation between the legislature and charitable corporations. Both churches and land speculators responded to the new law by purchasing rural land for cemeteries. The move to rural burial grounds was accelerated by public suspicion that contamination from graveyards had been a cause of the epidemics of cholera that occurred in New York City in 1832 and 1849. In 1852 the Common Council of New York City passed a law prohibiting new burials in the city, which then consisted only of Manhattan. The City of Brooklyn (which comprised a small area of what is now Brooklyn) had passed a similar law in 1849.

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