7. Old Springfield Cemetery (1670)

The Old Springfield Cemetery, a section within the Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield Gardens, Queens, is one of the oldest in the borough. Comprising about five and a half acres, the Colonial-era graveyard contains burials of the city’s first settlers, and here you will find names like Boerum, Nostrand and Remsen.

The Old Springfield Cemetery was in use from about 1670 to 1934, but the oldest gravestones have deteriorated to become unreadable at this point. You can walk or drive into the cemetery from an entrance on Springfield Avenue across 122nd Street, which is separate from the grander Montefiore Cemetery entrance. The road into the cemetery ends at a simple white chapel, that is still used. This non-sectarian cemetery is a unique spot amidst the Jewish Montefiore Cemetery.