Saint John's Cemetery

One of the oldest burial places in Yonkers, Saint John's Cemetery was established by Saint John's Episcopal Church in 1783 on land that had been bequeathed to the Church of England by Frederick Philipse II in 1751. The cemetery contains the graves of several notable Yonkers residents from the 19th century, as well as more than 200 veterans of America's armed conflicts from the Revolutionary War through World War I. Saint John's Cemetery is separate from Oakland Cemetery, a non-sectarian burial ground that opened in 1867 and adjoins its south and east sides.

In 1867 Oakland Cemetery, a non-sectarian burial ground, was established next to Saint John's Cemetery. The Reverend David Cole described Saint John's Cemetery as he saw it in 1886:

"The ground is on a high and beautiful elevation [and] comprises 7.6 acres, and is still the property of St. John’s Church and under its control. The carriage entrance to it from the Saw-Mill River road is on the northwest corner of the grounds. The foot entrance, further to the south, is by sixteen steps of very abrupt ascent. On the grounds, are several family vaults, some of which are very old, and several quite imposing obelisks and other monuments…. The ground is now becoming very closely filled with graves. There must be a time, and it cannot be far distant, when its room will be wholly taken up."