Washington Cemetery

Story

Washington Cemetery is an old, historical, and predominantly Jewish burial ground located at 5400 Bay Parkway in Mapleton, Brooklyn, New York, United States.Washington Cemetery was founded in 1850, and it became a Jewish burial-ground as early as 1857. Brooklyn cemeteries came into existence due to the Rural Cemetery Act of 1847, which allowed for the construction of commercial cemeteries outside the city limits. This part of Kings County was not yet incorporated into the City of Brooklyn, and the legislation resulted in the transformation of several large parcels of farmland into cemeteries.Cemetery configurationWashington Cemetery is made up of five "gated cemeteries" separated by several local Brooklyn streets. The cemetery office building is located on the grounds of Cemetery #1, which was the original cemetery, next to the Bay Parkway station of the F train of the New York City Subway.The founder of Washington Cemetery, James Arlington Bennet, is buried there, as are his wife and son. Bennet was born in New York, and was proprietor and principal of the Arlington House, an educational institution on Long Island. He usually is remembered as Joseph Smith's first choice as Vice-Presidential running mate in the United States presidential election of 1844, before Smith was assassinated. His surname is misspelled on his headstone, which reads, "Author of Bennett's Book Keeping & Other Works. Founder of Washington Cemetery."