New Calvary Cemetery ca. 1927

Burying the dead in mid-nineteenth century New York posed a problem for citizens of every denomination. The City's Irish Catholics faced acute difficulties. Their poverty and burgeoning numbers strained the capacity of older cemeteries. The expense and limited size of Manhattan property and a law which barred interments below Canal Street after 1830 compelled the Diocese to seek a long-term solution. In 1846, the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral purchased farm land in Queens for $18,000 and two years later Calvary Cemetery opened as the new Catholic burial ground. Initially, most burials were of children and poor Irish immigrants who had resided in lower Manhattan's tenements. Early burial parties arrived by ferry across Newtown Creek. In 1870, the opening of Borden Avenue provided land access. By the early 1990s, the cemetery had nearly three million graves.