Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn)
 
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| Details | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1850 |
| Location | 5400 Bay Parkway, Mapleton, Brooklyn, New York City |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Coordinates | 40°37′08″N 73°58′32″W / 40.6190°N 73.9756°W |
| Type | Jewish |
| Find a Grave | Washington Cemetery |
Washington Cemetery is an old, historical, and predominantly Jewish burial ground located at 5400 Bay Parkway in Mapleton, Brooklyn, New York, United States.
Washington Cemetery was founded in 1850, and it became a Jewish burial-ground as early as 1857. Brooklyn cemeteries came into existence due to the Rural Cemetery Act of 1847, which allowed for the construction of commercial cemeteries outside the city limits. This part of Kings County was not yet incorporated into the City of Brooklyn, and the legislation resulted in the transformation of several large parcels of farmland into cemeteries.
Washington Cemetery is made up of five "gated cemeteries" separated by several local Brooklyn streets. The cemetery office building is located on the grounds of Cemetery #1, which was the original cemetery, next to the Bay Parkway station of the F train of the New York City Subway.
The founder of Washington Cemetery, James Arlington Bennet, is buried there, as are his wife and son. Bennet was born in New York, and was proprietor and principal of the Arlington House, an educational institution on Long Island. He usually is remembered as Joseph Smith's first choice as Vice-Presidential running mate in the United States presidential election of 1844, before Smith was assassinated. His surname is misspelled on his headstone, which reads, "Author of Bennett's Book Keeping & Other Works. Founder of Washington Cemetery."
Cemetery #1 is shaped like a pentagon, and bordered on three of its sides by major Brooklyn streets: Ocean Parkway, Bay Parkway, and McDonald Avenue. The main entrance and cemetery office building are on Bay Parkway just off McDonald Avenue. The interior of Cemetery #1 is crisscrossed by paths called Rose Avenue, Hyacinth Avenue, Jasmine Avenue, Aster Avenue, Lotus Avenue, and Evergreen Avenue. It has numerical posts from number one to number one hundred and forty-nine "A" (1–149A), sections marked "ranges". It has "society" sections, and burials are still occurring. It houses the majority of the mausoleums and larger monuments. It is also the cemetery that in December 2010 sustained the majority of overturned and broken headstones because of vandals. Approximately 200 headstones were overturned and are still not upright. Although there are concrete walkways, grave markers are very closely positioned in some areas, and visitors are sometimes forced to walk on grass.
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