113-acre Staten Island cemetery dating to 1740, where the Vanderbilt mausoleum section has been closed to the public since a fatal gate accident in 1967.
2205 Richmond Road, Staten Island, NY 10306
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
General grounds are free and open to the public; Vanderbilt family section closed to non-family visitors.
Access
Limited Access
Paved cemetery lanes and grass paths; 113 acres of sloped terrain
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1740 · Oldest and largest active cemetery on Staten Island (1740) · Vanderbilt Mausoleum (1885–1886) — Richard Morris Hunt, Romanesque Revival · Frederick Law Olmsted landscape design for Vanderbilt section · NYC Landmark designation 2016 for Vanderbilt section · Notable burials: Martin Scorsese's parents, Alice Austen, General Stephen H. Weed
Moravian Cemetery was established in 1740 in what is now the New Dorp neighborhood of Staten Island, originally maintained by the Moravian congregation to serve as a free alternative to farm burial plots. The cemetery grew steadily through the colonial and Federal periods and covers 113 acres — the largest active cemetery on Staten Island.
The connection to the Vanderbilt family began in the mid-19th century when Cornelius Vanderbilt, who retained strong ties to his Staten Island birth borough despite his railroad wealth, donated approximately 45 acres to the Moravian Church for cemetery use. His son William Henry Vanderbilt later added another four acres. The family engaged architect Richard Morris Hunt — designer of the Metropolitan Museum's Fifth Avenue facade and the Breakers in Newport — to design the private mausoleum. Hunt modeled the structure on a Romanesque church in Arles, France; it was completed in 1885–1886 and described at its opening as the most magnificent private tomb in the United States. Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of Central Park, designed the landscaping of the Vanderbilt family section.
The grounds contain notable burials including filmmaker Martin Scorsese's parents, photographer Alice Austen, Union General Stephen H. Weed, and multiple generations of the Vanderbilt family. In 2016 the mausoleum and portions of the Vanderbilt section were designated New York City landmarks. The Vanderbilt section itself was closed to general visitors in the 1970s following the 1967 gate fatality.
Sources
The haunting claims at Moravian Cemetery center almost entirely on the Vanderbilt mausoleum section, which has been closed to non-family visitors since the early 1970s following a fatal accident at the ornamental ironwork gate. In 1967, a 24-year-old Staten Island woman was crushed to death by the 15-foot ironwork gate at the mausoleum entrance. Since the gate fatality, witnesses have reported a glowing light near the gate that resembles a young woman with long, flowing hair.
The Cornelius Vanderbilt ghost tradition is specific: the apparition, described as a man in a gray suit, allegedly appears to chase away visitors who arrive at the mausoleum carrying flowers. Multiple sources that collect Staten Island haunted locations repeat this detail, though it lacks a named first-person witness. A separate photographic tradition holds that pictures taken in front of the mausoleum show either an additional figure not visible to the photographer at the time, or that the photographer themselves appears absent from their own photograph — a variant of the classic cemetery photography claim.
The NY Ghosts compendium and realhaunts.com both document reports of ghostly orbs, bright lights, and what one account describes as blurred faces near the Vanderbilt tomb, as well as the sound of a baby crying near certain unnamed tombs in the general cemetery grounds. The closed Vanderbilt section has been a consistent stop on Staten Island paranormal discussions since at least the 1990s.
Notable Entities
Walk the general cemetery grounds and observe the exterior of the Vanderbilt Mausoleum, designed by Richard Morris Hunt in 1885–1886 in Romanesque style. The mausoleum and surrounding Vanderbilt section are closed to the public; exterior views are available from the main cemetery lanes. Alice Austen, the photographer buried here, connects the cemetery to the nearby Alice Austen House museum.
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