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Upon entering the Cemetery of the Evergreens, on the right is a grassy area. Up the hill and on the knoll in the trees is the Cypress Cemetery. The Cemetery of the Evergreens is active and well cared for, the Cypress Cemetery has recently been cleared but loaded with poison Ivy!
Incorporated in 1872, this 8-acre cemetery is situated 30 miles east of Albany and two miles west of New Lebanon, the center of the Shaker community from the late 18th century. The irregularly-shaped parcel is bounded on the west by farmland and on the east by woods and a ravine formed by the Wyomanock Creek. The land gently slopes towards the south, turning into wetlands curtailed by Cemetery Road; the northern rise is densely forested with native evergreens, which lend the cemetery its name. The gently undulating terrain was treated in a Picturesque manner, with winding drives and unfenced open lawn dotted with informal stands of mature deciduous and coniferous trees. The burial markers are often laid out in straight rows or concentric rings, and range from simple headstones to ornate monuments. The grandest of the monuments lies near the center of the site and is dedicated to Governor Samuel J. Tilden, who lost the presidential election in 1876. Designed by Ecole des Beaux Arts-trained architect Ernest Flagg and completed in 1895, the granite sarcophagus containing Tilden’s remains is positioned atop a raised granite platform centered on a circular mound bordered by cut granite curbing. The Neoclassical crypt was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Billion Graves
Cemetery Road and Rt 22
New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York