An Olmsted landscape is a living work of art, and it needs tending.
The cemetery’s grounds crew and superintendent care for the roads, the trees, the lawns, and the common areas, guided by the Cemetery Committee of St. John’s. Families and friends care for the plots that belong to them. In a cemetery this old and this large, there is always more to do.
Our preservation plan
In 2018 and 2019 the cemetery committee and the wider St. John’s community worked with Heritage Landscapes, preservation landscape architects, to study the Olmsted record and decide how to care for the cemetery in the years ahead. The committee agreed to:
- preserve and restore the Olmsted rooms;
- work toward a more unified landscape across the cemetery;
- replace clipped hedges with low plantings, trees, and bulbs, and add stone paths in the small-plot areas;
- plant flowering trees and shrubs where there is room;
- restore the Olmsted-style wooded edges around the perimeter; and
- guide the materials, color, and size of gravestones.
The study also found that the cemetery is potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, which would recognize it as the work of master landscape architects.
Supporting the cemetery
Gifts of any size help us tend the trees, repair the walls and steps, and carry out the preservation plan. Gifts are made through St. John’s Church: you can give online, or send a check to St. John’s Episcopal Church, 1670 Route 25A, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724. Please note “Memorial Cemetery” on your gift.
To talk about a gift, a memorial tree, or volunteering, please call (516) 692-6748 or contact us. Our thanks, always, to our grounds crew, who care for this place every day.