Old Sloatsburg Cemetery - Property

Property

The cemetery occupies a rectangular 5-acre (2.0 ha) parcel in the western section of the village, south of Eagle Valley Road and a short distance west of NY 17. The land slopes slightly westward, to a wooded hillside to the west, with a drum-shaped rise in the east where the members of the Sloat family are buried. A gravel road from Eagle Valley leads into the northeast corner of the cemetery, leading first to a circle around the Sloat graves, then heading west to a smaller circle in the Waldron section of the cemetery, near the more recent gravesites, connecting with a dirt path from the end of Richards Road, the only other public access point. Three copses of trees are located throughout the otherwise open lot.

The Sloat family's section is a raised area 20 feet (6.1 m) above grade at the cemetery's eastern boundary. There are 30 gravestones here, starting with John Sloat's in 1781. The rest date from 1838 onward.

To its west is a section known as "The Hill", with 72 stones dating to 1852, probably the date it was opened. They are laid out in a strict grid pattern of 20 by 20 feet (6.1 by 6.1 m) plots. The gently undulating ground, winding roadway and groves show the influence of the mid-19th century Rural Cemetery Movement.

Continuing westward, two sections expanded in the early 20th century maintain the grid pattern but are much more level. The westernmost section of the cemetery, named the Waldron section after a local funeral director who oversaw much of the graves dug here in the second quarter of the 20th century, has four mausolea typical of that era. One memorializes a teenage girl who died in 1933 as a "martyr to the automobile age". Some section terraces nearby may have been meant for future expansions.