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Immigrant remains to be interred on Staten Island

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

But on Saturday, October 17, the remains of Irish and German immigrants from the mid-19th century will be interred with full ceremony and ritual in a local cemetery.
But only for a couple of years.
The plan is to re-inter the remains at the original site of discovery in 2012, this once the construction work has been concluded at the court site.
The final resting place will be known as “Memorial Green.”
The remains were exhumed in 2007 from an existing parking area, the St. George municipal lot, which dates to the 1950s. The site is at the intersection of St. Mark’s Place, Hyatt Street and Central Avenue in the St. George neighborhood.
The remains are those of Irish and German immigrants who died in the mid-1800s of diseases such as typhus and yellow fever in a quarantine hospital situated close to the present day court complex.
The burial site was rediscovered as a result of an archaeological dig in a parking area designated for the new state court building.
The dig site was once known as the Marine Hospital Complex, a facility that operated from 1799 until 1858 and was propelled into the front lines of the Great Hunger tragedy during the 1840s.
The advocacy group, Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island, headed by local activist Lynn Rogers, originally wanted to inter the remains in Staten Island Cemetery, a restored burial ground just a mile from the four-acre, $114 million court complex.
This eight-acre cemetery dates to 1802 and before that was a Native American burial ground. It was restored about 25 years ago and is maintained by the Friends, a charitable group that includes a number of local members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
The Friends were especially fearful that the remains would be left in what was a shallow grave at the court house site. But, in a series of negotiations, a compromise was brokered leading to the temporary burial in the cemetery and eventual permanent interment at the specially created memorial location.
“It has been very important to us that these remains were treated with respect and brought back to Staten Island and out of storage boxes in Brooklyn,” said Rogers, who is executive director of the Friends group.
“Once back on Staten Island they will be housed in a receiving tomb in a cemetery until the original cemetery is prepared and rehabilitated at the site.
“By 2012 the remains will be permanently re-interred to the original site which will be raised and landscaped. Monuments will also be erected,” she said.
The October 17 ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will begin with Mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church at St. Mark’s Place, concelebrated by Monsignor James Dorney and Rev. Richard Michaels.
The Mass will be followed by the temporary entombment ceremony at 11 in Moravian Cemetery. The laying to rest will be watched over by an Ancient Order of Hibernians honor guard.
After the entombing, there will be a reception hosted by Tappen Park Oktoberfest featuring Irish and German music.
“There has been a lot of interest expressed about the ceremony,” said Bill Reilly, one of the leading AOH campaigners in the effort to secure proper burial for the immigrant remains.
“The names and lives of these individuals as well as Staten Island’s unique history as a major quarantine station for New York Harbor have been forgotten for the past 151 years. On October 17 this history will be remembered,” said Lynn Rogers.

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