Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground

It has been known as the Town Ground, the Pauper's Burial Ground and the Colored Cemetery of the Olde Towne of Flushing. NYC Parks records that "more than half of those interred here are under the age of five and only a quarter are over the age of 30." The final burial was in 1898 and the ground was transferred to Parks in 1914. A survey in 1919 recorded four marble headstones: Alfred E. Bunn, who died in 1876 aged 3; George H. Bunn, who died in 1887 aged 17; James Bunn, who died in 1890 aged 53; and Willie Curry, who died in 1874 aged 4. In the 1930s a playground called Martin's Field was built over the site; in Parks' words, "The bodies were never relocated, and the grounds were completely desecrated," with contemporary reports of "bones galore." The advocacy of the community activist Mandingo Osceola Tshaka (1931-2022) led to the site's National Register listing, and the memorial carries "a commemorative wall engraved with the names of 320 people that were identified, with room for additional names that may be discovered."