Sylvan Cemetery

If it's possible, Sylvan Cemetery, at the end of Victory Boulevard in Staten Island in the small town of Travis, is even in worse shape than Prospect Cemetery, and at present I know of no local organization dedicated to restoring it.

Sylvan Cemetery is remembered only by graffiti vandals, who tage the remaining standing headstones.

Most of the headstones in Sylvan have been knocked over. As in Prospect Cemetery, overgrown weeds and thorns make it difficult to navigate.

Sylvan Cemetery bears no signs to identify it as such; I know it as Sylvan Cemetery only by a small notation on my Hagstrom map of Staten Island. Most of the stones date from the mid-to-late 1800s although I did see one or two earlier ones. There are many Deckers buried here; apparently Decker is a prominent Staten Island name from way back.

Site of Helen MacGregor Joy's grave. Helen was only two years old and lived from 1846 to 1848.

Sylvan, with most of its stones tipped over, vandalized or graffitied on, is high on a hill overlooking the West Shore Expressway and beyond, the Arthur Kill and New Jersey.

I'm going to do a little investigating on Sylvan Cemetery's history and whether anything can be done to treat it more respectfully. If you know anything, email me at erpietri@earthlink.net.

Thanks for visiting the site.