Frederick Douglass Memorial Park

3201 Amboy Road | also 3181 Amboy Road | Great Kills | built 1930

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1935

    June 10

    Frederick Douglass Memorial Park opens as a cemetery founded by and for Black New Yorkers

    Harlem funeral director Rodney Dade founded the cemetery to give African Americans dignified burials at a time when other cemeteries discriminated against them, partnering with businessman Benjamin Diamond and attorney Frederick A. Bunn. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, was among the first directors. The first burials took place on June 10, 1935, and the Landmarks Preservation Commission calls it the city's only surviving non-sectarian cemetery founded by and for African Americans.

    “The memorial park opened with its first burials on June 10, 1935.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1961

    Architect James Whitford Jr. turns the cemetery's small service building into an office and chapel

    A modest building with restrooms and garage space went up on the grounds between 1947 and 1955. In 1960 the cemetery hired Staten Island architect James Whitford Jr. to enlarge it, adding new cladding, a central tower and a two-story wing. The remodeled building held a small chapel, a reception area and a caretaker's apartment, and it was finished in time for the 1961 unveiling of the Frederick Douglass monument.

    “In 1960, the cemetery contracted with local Staten Island architect James Whitford, Jr. for plans, specifications, and supervision for a substantial addition…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 2024

    June 18

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Frederick Douglass Memorial Park a city landmark

    At the May 21, 2024 hearing five people spoke in favor, among them board president Brandon Stradford and Council Member Kamillah M. Hanks, and nobody spoke against it. Letters of support came from the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and an Ethiopian Hebrew congregation in Harlem. The commission designated the cemetery on June 18, 2024.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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