Case#: 08 - 16 - 08
Date: August 16, 2008
Type & Place: Cemetery - Flushing, NY - Forest & Union sections
Background:
Union Cemetery, Brooklyn
This cemetery, once located near Wyckoff Ave. was closed in 1897 to make way for Bushwick High School. Over 20,000 burials were reinterred at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Flushing
in the 'Union' section. It is said that very few headstones remain and
that all records have been lost.Originally owned jointly by the Grand Street and Attorney Street Methodist Churches. Article in Bklyn Standard Union 6 November 1906
WANT OLD BURIAL GROUND FOR PARK Demanding more public parks for Brooklyn, a host of Brooklynites stormed the Board of Estimate meeting in the City Hall, to-day. Most of those present were there to advocate the laying out of a public park bounded by
Knickerbocker avenue, Putnam avenue, Palmetto street and a new street to
form the southwesterly boundary of said park; in other words, on the old
Union Cemetery site. Jared J. CHAMBERS, president of the Twenty-eighth Ward Taxpayers' Protective Association, headed the delegation, which represented thirteen
Brooklyn civic bodies.
Mr. CHAMBERS did all the speaking, because when he got through the Mayor said
Mr. CHAMBERS had fully enlightened the Board, Mr. COLER adding that there was
apparently no opposition. Mr. CHAMBERS said in part: "We are here to advocate a public playground for the Bushwick and Ridgewood section, on the old Union Cemetery site, in the Twenty-eighth Ward. Our ward is composed mostly of tenement houses, and many of the parents who occupy them can ill afford to send their children to the country in the summer, and the time after school hours and before dark will not permit the child (even if their parents would allow them) to visit the playgrounds and large parks in other parts of our borough."
"In 1896, notwithstanding our ward, the Twenty-eighth, was the largest in the old City of Brooklyn, the authorities purchased a small plot of ground, three and one-half acres, for a park. This park, Irving Square, is one of the
smallest in the borough, and the children have no room in it to play.
In 1897, the first year of the consolidation, the Union Cemetery, right in the
heart of a congested district of the ward, was sold, and the bodies were
removed to Cedar Grove Cemetery. The ground was left in a terrible condition, and it is worse to-day than ever. This large plot is surrounded by large tenements, some of them containing eight familes."
"In view of the fact that this congested section, known as the
Bushwick-Ridgewood district, has no park or playground, and that this site
presented an ideal place for a playground, where the children could play,
exercise and having a breathing place, and as this was unimproved property, we started a movement to secure a public playground on that site. According to
the census of 1900 the ward numbered 77,913, and so rapid has been the growth that to-day we have a population over 100,000, and still increasing. A large part of the Twenty-seventh ward and a portion of the Borough of Queens which borders on the Twenty-eighth ward would be benefited by this playground, as it would be very close to them."
In the book, "The graveyard shift," Carolee Inskeep states that about
30,000 people were buried in Union Cemetery (Methodist Protestant) between 1851 and its closure in 1893. Bodies were moved to Cedar Grove Cemetery, along with records, after it was sold for development.
Paranormal Activity:
Apparitions and Voices were seen and heard in the Union section of the cemetery by staff and visitors.
Investigators: Larry - James
Equipment: 2 - Olympius Digital Recorders
1 EMF Detector -
1 Sony Digital Camera
1 Canon Digital Camera
Weather: Cloudy
Photo Evidence: None
Audio Evidence: Under Review
Video Evidence: N/A
EMF Evidence: Readings ranged from 1.00 to 2.7
Final Disposition:
No photo evidence. Investigator James stated that his camera went dead and that he charged it the night before. A Very tense and uneasy feeling experienced by both investigators in the Union section of the cemetery.
Forest circle section
5 minutes 22 secs into investigation EMF spike 1.5
8 min 56 sec 2.1 EMF spike 1.7
Union section
2.minutes and 35 secs into investigation EMF spike 2.1 near larry
3 minutes investigation: heavy breathing, like someone was running
3 min and 26 secs into investigation: unknown horn sound
5.min 03 secs into investigation: EVP- shh sound
5 min 15 secs I asked if you are a boy or girl : EVP sounded like " see "
8 min 35 secs into investigation: I asked if they knew that they pasted away and a sound like "chest or yes"