All Faiths Cemetery

The All Faiths Cemetery is located in Middle Village, Queens, New York. The 225-acre (91-hectare) cemetery was established in 1850 by Lutheran pastor Frederick W. Geissenhainer, and incorporated in 1852. Originally named Lutheran Cemetery, it was renamed to Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery in 1990. Approximately 540,000 burials have been conducted at the cemetery since its founding.

History 
In 1847 the New York state legislature passed the Rural Cemetery Act, which allowed nonprofit organizations to incorporate and sell burial plots. Seeing an opportunity to provide a lower-cost alternative to existing cemeteries such as Green-wood in Brooklyn, the Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Geissenhainer, the pastor of St. Paul's German Lutheran Church, conferred with representatives of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church (his prior parish). While St. Paul's decided against investing in this endeavor, St. Matthew's and Dr. Geissenhainer pursued the purchase of land in Queens in 1850. The parcels owned by St. Matthews and Dr. Geissenhainer were held and developed separately; he incorporated as the "Lutheran Cemetery" (although members of all faiths were accepted) on March 22, 1852. Additional acreage was purchased over the next few years, and the Lutheran Cemetery bought the St. Matthew's land in 1868. Burials at the Lutheran Cemetery started at $2.50, and plots could be obtained for $7.00.

In 1990, the name was changed to All Faiths Cemetery "to show accommodation to ALL religious and non-religious patrons".

In 2006, vandals allegedly toppled over or destroyed over 60 headstones, some of which the cemetery's president said weighed over ; he asserted that a group of mischievous teenagers had caused the damage and stated, "At first it seemed they were targeting Jewish-sounding names, but then we realized they were just jumping all over." 

Beginning in 2014, local news media ran stories questioning why some sections of the cemetery were in disrepair. One article described "Toppled monuments, sunken gravestones and shattered mausoleum windows..." The chairman of the cemetery's board of directors attributed such conditions to a lack of funds and state law restricting use of perpetual-care funds for upkeep of graves where the owners had not paid for such care.

On October 11, 2016, Nell Scovell shared an attempt of hers to visit the headstone of real-estate developer Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump, who was subsequently elected the 45th U.S. president. Although the cemetery's website listed the grave as one it would show "upon request", Scovell was met with resistance from the cemetery's president, who accused her of criminal trespassing and told her to "Come back after the election."

Alleged management issues 
On September 3, 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed suit against the directors and officers of the cemetery, alleging that they had "exploited their positions at the Cemetery to draw fees, salaries, and loans from the Cemetery's charitable assets while ignoring their basic fiduciary obligation to manage the assets under their control for the benefit of the Cemetery and its property." The lawsuit followed investigations arising from an audit by the New York State Division of Cemeteries in 2014. As of February 2022, the case was still making its way through the legal process.

Notable burials and memorials 

 PS General Slocum steamboat fire mass memorial – commemorates the 1,021 victims of a 1904 disaster, 61 of whom are buried at the cemetery
 John Kissel (1864–1938) – U.S. Congressman
 John Herman George Vehslage (1842–1904) – U.S. Congressman
 Frank T. Hopkins (1865–1951) – horseman and endurance rider
 Carrie Nye (1936–2006) – actress
 William Johnston "Buffalo Bill" Hogg (1881–1909) – Major League Baseball player
 Charley Jones (1852–1911) – Major League Baseball player
 William G. Mank (1831–1887) – Brigadier General in the Union Army in the Civil War
 William Koelpin (1845–1912) – U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
 William Lord (1841–1915) – U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
 Charles Stephen Schepke (1878–1933) – U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
 Christian Streile (1838–1886) – U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
 George Uhrl (1838–1911) – U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
 Otto Botticher (1811–1886) – artist, lithographer and Civil War veteran
 Frederick Trump (1869–1918) – businessman and grandfather of Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. president
 Elizabeth Christ Trump (1880–1966) – businesswoman and grandmother of Donald Trump
 Fred Trump (1905–1999) – businessman and father of Donald Trump
 Mary Anne MacLeod Trump (1912–2000) – mother of Donald Trump

In popular culture
The following films have been shot at the cemetery:
 Rosemary's Baby (1968)
 Man on a Ledge (2012)
 Abigail (2019)

References

External links
 

Cemeteries in Queens, New York
1850 establishments in New York (state)
Cemeteries established in the 1850s