St. Michael's, Astoria

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Address
72-02 Astoria Blvd.
Astoria, N.Y. 11370
(718) 278-3240
Website

St. Michael's was originally a cemetery for the poor.

Ragtime American composer Scott Joplin and Italian-American mobster Frank Costello are probably the most famous burials here. Granville T. Woods, a famous American inventor sometimes referred to as the Black Edison is buried in the same plot as Scott Joplin. There is also a notable memorial to the Queens firefighters who died on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center.

St. Michael's is building up its Community Mausoleums, in which hundreds of bodies are interred above ground. This style is said to be the future of the death-care industry, and could provide an option for those who wish to spend eternity in New York City after in-ground burial space is completely used up.

St. Michael's is an interesting piece of land, its different sections possessing vastly different characters. I am sometimes unnerved by the presence of a rooster farm in the middle of the cemetery.

Among the many poignant markers at St. Michael's I am fond of the little poem The Unknown Deeps, which appears on the grave marker of Jane Fowler Jones.

There are deeps we cannot fathom.
In the blue sun-lighted sea,
Though we mark each surface ripple,
All beneath is mystery.

Thus the soul may seem as tranquil
As a sea without a wave.
While there are to thee unopened
Deeps as secret as the grave.

Cast into the sea a pebble.
Cast into the heart a word.
It is all alike - thou can'st not
Know what mighty deeps are stirr'd.

Jane Fowler Jones Who died June Twelfth, 1902