ROSLYN CEMETERY
Greenvale, NY
Our History
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The Roslyn Cemetery was organized ca. 1860 and has been on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places since 1991. It is also a designated landmark in the Town of North Hempstead. The small East Toll Gate House in the cemetery has been on the State and National Registers of Historic Places since 1977.
The Roslyn Cemetery was created under the Rural Cemetery Act, a law passed in 1847 that authorized commercial burial grounds in rural New York State. Prior to this act, people were generally buried at churchyards or on private land. Interments began in the 19th century, and there are several notable figures buried at the cemetery including William Cullen Bryant, the 19th century poet and editor; Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy; Christopher Morley, poet and journalist; and United States Congressman Stephen Taber. |
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The East Gate Toll House, built ca. 1860, sits on the south east side of the cemetery. It is the last remaining toll house that served the North Hempstead Turnpike.
Why is there a toll house in the Roslyn Cemetery? Visitors were never charged to enter the cemetery. The East Gate Toll House was constructed by the Flushing-North Hempstead Toll Road Company in 1860 to improve the highway that today is Route 25A (Northern Boulevard). The West Toll-Gate House, which has not survived, was near the intersection of today’s Old Northern Boulevard and Shore Road at the west end of the Roslyn business district. At both, a long pole extended over the road to stop vehicles, which was raised after the toll was paid. The toll collector lived in the building. When constructed, the East Gate Toll House was not in the cemetery, but when Northern Boulevard was relocated some yards south of the toll house (year is uncertain), the toll gate house, no longer used to collect tolls, was left behind and became part of the cemetery. For many years, the toll house stored equipment for the cemetery. In the 1970s, spurred initially by a competition for matching restoration grants for the Bicentennial, funds were raised for the restoration of the toll house from various sources. After restoration, the toll house was used initially as a toolshed, workshop, and for other cemetery functions. The Roslyn Presbyterian Church, which owns the cemetery, is responsible for maintenance of the toll house. This is the only one of the many 19th-century toll houses that has survived on Long Island. --Information from Roslyn Landmark Society (RLS), Annual House Tour Guide, June 4, 1977, pp. 77-80. See also the RLS’s 1983 House Tour Guide and the Roslyn Landmark Society's website. |
The Toll House
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