Starting point – Old Entrance at 83-15 Kew Gardens Road  (off Lefferts Boulevard)

Kew Gardens, NY     11415

Spirits Alive 2011 boasts a cast of over 20 volunteer actors dressed in period costumes who will portray some of Maple Grove’s most illustrious and historical figures from the past encompassing all walks of life.

This year a number of new, recently discovered figures will be introduced, including  William Nelson,  a World War I soldier who fought at the Battle of the Argonne Forest in France; Elma Stebbins, the wife of famed hymnist composer George Stebbins; Francis Marsh, a young telegraph operator who survived the Great Blizzard of 1888 and the following year, the Great Johnstown Flood;  Madame Helen Bakhmeteff, the wife of the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. in 1917, who was witness to the fall of Czar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra; Jane Heath, who was a direct descendant of the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams; Elisabeth Japp, whose husband was the engineer who built the subway tunnels under the East River in the early 1900s; a nurse from Ellis Island Hospital, who will tell the story of a woman in search of the resting place of her uncle who had died at the Ellis Island Hospital at age 4 in 1921 and was missing for decades; John McKenney, a Civil War soldier who fought with the Massachusetts Heavy Artillery; LaVergne Bronk, whose ancestors where the first European settlers of the Bronx, which still bears their family name; Alonzo Adams, a sea captain who became king of an island in the Caribbean  and many more.

The most sensational discovery this year was the African American Burial Ground of the historic Shiloh First Presbyterian Church, whose interred members were removed from the vaults of their church and brought to Maple Grove Cemetery in 1877. This vibrant church was on the Underground Railroad and had a huge impact on the anti- slavery movement for decades. Many of the most influential figures during the Civil War period spoke at the church, including Frederick Douglass. Actors will appear as members of the congregation and tell you the entire story of this historic church and will be a highlight of Spirits Alive.

Visitors will receive easy-to-follow maps and programs.

$5 per adult, Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery Members and children under 12–FREE!