Frederick Douglass Memorial Park

Frederick Douglass Memorial Park
Monument area near park entrance
Type	Cemetery
Location	3201 Amboy Road, Staten Island, NY, 10306
Established	1935
Operated by	Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, Inc.
Open	9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Website	FDMP official site
Frederick Douglass Memorial Park
NYC Individual Landmark
Designated NYCL	June 18, 2024[1]

Frederick Douglass Memorial Park is a historic cemetery located at 3201 Amboy Road, in the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, was founded in 1933, and opened in 1935. It was established by and for New York City's African Americans as a fitting and dignified cemetery to bury and honor their loved ones at a time when discrimination and segregation excluded them from other cemeteries. Many cemeteries had separate entrances and less desired sections of cemeteries for people based on race.^[2]

This cemetery celebrates Black heritage and honors generations of African Americans who were afforded the respect they deserved. It is historically significant as the only extant, non-sectarian cemetery founded by and for African Americans in New York City.^[3]

It is named for abolitionist, orator, statesman, and author Frederick Douglass (1818–1895). Amongst the reported 60,000 interred at the park are approximately 70 family members of the current Board of Directors, numerous prominent African Americans, including a pioneering journalist, athletes, musicians, performers, educators, public health heroines, political leaders, history-makers and more. The park was designated a New York City designated landmark in June 2024.^[2]

History

The original 53-acre cemetery was founded in 1935 by undertaker Rodney Dade, business consultant Benjamin Diamond, and lawyer Frederick Bunn.^[4] Rodney Dade (1874-1956) was a successful undertaker in Harlem during the 1930s and owned a funeral home at 2332 7th Avenue. He graduated from Howard University and the school’s medical college, and worked for a time as a physician before transitioning into the mortuary business.^[4] Accounts in the newspapers relate how Dade experienced firsthand the inequities African Americans experienced at many desirable New York City cemeteries. He had been sent to side gates and offered only the least desirable plots for his clients.^[4]

Dade partnered with Frederick A. Bunn (1875-1942) who was president of Ocean View Cemetery in Staten Island (50 NYC LPC). Bunn had developed sections of Ocean View Cemetery into Valhalla Memorial Park for Scandinavian communities and Mount Sinai Memorial Park, the section that would later become Frederick Douglass Memorial Park (51 NYC LPC). At the time of his death in 1942, Bunn’s obituary claimed he was an “expert in cemetery law and design” and had planned Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, becoming its first president of the board of directors.^[4]

Benjamin Diamond (c. 1890-1957) was an administrator and sales executive who was a well- known business consultant and longtime friend of Rodney Dade. He was one of the founders of Harlem’s daily newspaper, The Daily Citizen, and had been associated with cross cultural efforts to improve the community for many years (53 NYC LPC). He assisted Mr. Dade with the formation of a stock corporation for the future cemetery and appointed a Board of Directors (54 NYC LPC). Both Benjamin Diamond and Rodney Dade are buried at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park.^[4]

The Board of Directors tapped prominent Harlem citizens, including funeral directors and ministers, including the highly influential Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church. A newspaper article noted that this first governing board consisted of “Public-spirited men who sensed the growing need of just such an artistic development.”^[4]

The Frederick Douglass Memorial Park was managed by African Americans and intended to provide an attractive option for African Americans excluded from segregated cemeteries and facing high burial costs in the vicinity of New York. The first burials at the cemetery were on Monday June 10, 1935.^[4] As of December 31st, 1935, there were 117 interments in the first six months.^[5]

Non-Title interments in New York City in the 1800's were largely set aside for Slaves, "Colored Orphans", "Others", and the abject poor. From 1935, when FDMP opened its gates and soon after established non-title grave sites, those interred would not be linked to a lower socio-economic status or impoverished, as was the practice throughout the City.^[6]

An impressive memorial to the park's namesake, Frederick Douglass, was dedicated on May 28, 1961, the park's 26th Anniversary. Sculptor, Angus McDougall (1906-1978) designed the commemorative bronze bas relief cenotaph, which is located prominently near the front entrance. The eight-foot tall granite memorial - on which the cenotaph is mounted - was fabricated by Wegenaar Monuments, Amboy Road, Staten Island. It was reportedly the first monument in New York City honoring the civil rights leader.^[7]

Until 2018, at the park's main gateway, once stood a majestic entrance assembly. The historic gate and fencing consisted of iron gates, large brick posts with ornamental caps, and sections of iron picket fence at both sides of the main entrance mounted on a low masonry wall (NYC LPC, photo p3).^[4] Through the generosity of the United Staten Island Veterans Organization (USIVO), the park received its first US flag and flagpole. On Veterans Day, 2021, the US flag was dedicated to the park in an official flag raising ceremony hosted by USIVO in the monument circle.^[8]

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) considered granting landmark status to Frederick Douglass Memorial Park in early 2024. The park was designated June 18, 2024.^[9] In June 2025, Frederick Douglass Memorial Park hosted a ceremony where community members, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, and Staten Island elected officials celebrated the cemetery's 90th anniversary and the first year of its landmark status.^[10]

Local historical organizations and the Staten Island Museum have begun digitizing burial ledgers to facilitate genealogical research.^[11]

Frederick Douglass Memorial Park encompasses approximately 15 acres in the Oakwood neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City. From its inception, it was designed as a landscaped "memorial park" cemetery.^[2] The cemetery's founders commissioned J. Wallace Higgins, a civil engineer and landscape architect, to design the grounds in a park-like layout featuring curving pathways, open lawns, and grave markers set flush with the earth.^[12] This approach, common in 20th-century cemetery design, emphasized natural beauty and ease of maintenance, allowing for unobstructed views and more efficient groundskeeping.^[2] The cemetery features gentle rolling hills and tended green spaces intended to provide a serene, dignified environment for visitors. An endowment for perpetual care was established early in the cemetery's history to support ongoing maintenance.^[13]

Near the entrance to Frederick Douglass Memorial Park stands the Frederick Douglass Memorial, a prominent feature of the cemetery. Installed in 1961, the monument consists of an eight-foot-tall granite slab with a bronze bas-relief portrait of Frederick Douglass. Designed by sculptor Angus McDougall, the monument serves as a cenotaph honoring Douglass. ^[14]

Additional structures on the site include a small brick office building—later expanded in 1961—designed by Staten Island architect James Whitford.^[2] The cemetery is also framed by decorative wrought-iron entry gates, which were most recently replaced in 2018 as part of site-wide improvements.^[2]

The landscape, featuring mature trees and curving roads, has been maintained to reflect its original design. The park retains its original acreage and layout, now enriched by decades of vegetation growth, contributing to its historic and memorial character.^[13]

Original administration (1935):

• President of the Board – Frederick A. Bunn
• Board members – Kenneth Duncan, vice-president; Rodney Dade, Secretary and Treasurer; James Beckett; W. C. Brown; William P. Hayes; William M. Kelley; A. Clayton Powell Sr.; Clarence C. Wright

Board of Directors.

President, Brandon Stradford. Pamela Marshall, Treasurer. Lynn Cuffee, Secretary. Board Members: Vasheena Brisbane, Tanya Jackson, Lisa Wallace and Lynelle Cross.^[15]

• Mamie Smith,^[16] singer, dancer, pianist, and actress. Inducted in Blues Hall of Fame
• Elias "Country" Brown – Negro league All-Star baseball player^[17]
• Lillyn Brown, singer and entertainer
• Eleanor Bumpurs,^[18] elderly disabled woman shot to death by police in a confrontation during her eviction
• Nannie C. Burden (1891–1947) – singer and political candidate
• Floyd J. Calvin (1902–1939) – journalist and news service founder
• Tommy Ladnier, trumpeter
• Joseph E. Lymas (1883–1947) – world renowned violinist
• Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892–1973)^[19], Founder, Commandment Keepers Congregation
• Jimmy Mordecai, tap dancer
• Tom Doyed Overton (1889–1944)
• C. Luckeyth Roberts, pianist and composer
• Sol White, Negro League All-Star, Inductee into Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Manager and Negro League Historian
• Rev. S. J. Worell
• Julia Pearl Hughes, businesswoman and women's club leader
• Rosa Henderson, singer and entertainer
• Charles "Mercury" Nelson, of the chart-topping R&B group Force MD's
• Joanna Berry Shields, Founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first African American sorority in the US

Frederick Douglass Memorial Park has been described by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) as the only extant, non-sectarian cemetery in New York City that was founded by and for African Americans, created at a time when discrimination and segregation excluded Black New Yorkers from many burial grounds or confined them to inferior sections and services.^[20] City officials echoed this significance at the time of landmark designation in 2024, noting that the cemetery offered a dignified resting place when other cemeteries turned Black New Yorkers away.^[21]

Churches and community networks played a visible role in the cemetery’s use. Contemporary reporting documents that African-American congregations in New York purchased group plots for parishioners; for example, a pastor of Harlem’s Mount Moriah Baptist Church and church members were interred at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, reflecting the cemetery’s integration into Black religious and civic life.^[22]

The site also serves as a place of public memory. In 1961 the cemetery installed a monument featuring a bronze relief of Frederick Douglass by Angus McDougall; LPC regards it as New York City’s first sculptural monument to Douglass.^[21] The cemetery’s landmark designation on June 18, 2024 further formalized its recognition for Black cultural history in the city. In June 2025, local officials and preservation groups marked the cemetery’s 90th anniversary and unveiled a commemorative plaque at the grounds.^[23]

Community stewardship has been a recurring theme in the cemetery’s recent history. Reporting in 2017 detailed long-standing maintenance and governance problems, court-appointed oversight in the 2000s, and the emergence of a volunteer group, Friends of Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, Inc., organized by plot owners and descendants to advocate for repairs and accountability.^[22] In the years that followed, preservation nonprofits, local institutions, and volunteers contributed to recovery efforts. The New York Landmarks Conservancy reported providing an emergency grant in 2020 to replace damaged portions of the cemetery office roof and a technical-assistance grant in 2023 for a conditions assessment.^[24]

Since 2022, the Access, Collaboration & Equity in Genealogy partnership—led by the Staten Island Museum with the Staten Island Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and the cemetery—has organized public transcribe-a-thons and ongoing volunteer work to digitize interment ledgers; the project notes support from The New York Community Trust.^[25][26]

The 2024 landmark designation drew coordinated public support: at LPC’s hearing, the cemetery’s board leaders, a local City Council member, and representatives of preservation groups testified in favor, and the Commission recorded letters backing designation from civic and community organizations including the Richmond County Black and Minority Chamber of Commerce, the Negro Leagues Baseball Grave Marker Project, the Commandment Pillar (Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation), and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; no opposition was recorded.^[3] Community partners have also supported commemoration: on June 22, 2025, the LPC, the New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation, local officials, and residents unveiled a plaque marking the cemetery’s 90th anniversary and the first year of landmark status.^[27]

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Staten Island

• "Frederick Douglass Memorial Park Fills Long-Felt Need" The New York Age, July 30, 1949
• "Monument Honors Ex-Slave Crusader" New York Times, May 29, 1961
• "Monument Dedicated In N.Y." New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), June 10, 1961
• "A Place of Dignity Falls on Hard Times" New York Times, October 17, 2008
• "Hard-pressed Staten Island cemetery counting on descendants" Staten Island Advance, May 14, 2009

• Frederick Douglass Memorial Park Inc.
• Frederick Douglass Memorial Park at Find a Grave

40°33′49″N 74°08′06″W / 40.56361°N 74.13500°W / 40.56361; -74.13500