Mark Your Calendars

This year, the Old Flandreau Cemetery was honored by the City of New Rochelle as a Heritage

Award 2010 recipient. On Monday, November 15, 2010 the official plaque awarded by the city will be unveiled. We will be gathering on Monday the 15th at 3:30 at the cemetery site. We hope you can join us for some light refreshments and to celebrate this historical location.

Click here for an event flyer. We would love to know if you plan on attending. Please send an email to FlandreauCemetery@gmail.com.

A friend who recently formed The Wells of Love and Hope, Inc. introduced us to The New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. This is a fabulous clearinghouse of lawyers in New York City that analyze a project, share it with several law firms, and locate a firm that is willing to assist a new client on a Pro Bono basis. We are so grateful to them for their assistance. We are currently applying to the New York Department of State Division of Corporations to become a legally recognized not-for-profit corporation, Friends of Flandreau, Inc.

To quote our submitted documentation:
“The corporation is formed for the purposes of restoring, preserving and beautifying Flandreau Cemetery, an historical New Rochelle family graveyard that operated from 1800 to 1892.”

As we hear more from the law firm and New York, this blog will have posts regarding the progress being made. It is so nice to see this effort grow from an aged article in the New York Times with negative reflections to today with the positivity mounting. It will be so nice to officially be able to provide perpetual care soon if all goes well.

Old Flandreau Cemetery Honored

On June 15, 2010 the City of New Rochelle honored The Old Flandreau Cemetery with a Heritage Award. Catherine Josset, descendant, applied for the prestigious award. The program's goal was described as “The program celebrates and raises public awareness about historic properties and structures in the following categories: residences older than fifty years that are significant to New Rochelle's history; public or quasi-public structures older than 50 years that are significant to New Rochelle's history; stellar restoration, residence; stellar restoration, adaptive reuse; home of nationally prominent individual; significant architect or architectural style; and landscape or landscape feature.”
http://newrochellepreservationsociety.com/

On June 15, 2010 during a ceremony at New Rochelle's City Hall the award was presented to Catherine Josset. Catherine graciously shared the award with all those present from the unofficial Friends of Flandreau including Jennifer Terranova (neighbor), Teddy Flandreau (descendant), and Jeannine Shields (concerned citizens). You can read more about the cemetery and the award at http://www.newrochellenews.info/HTML/Flandreau%20Cemetery.html


Soon the city will install a plaque to recognize The Old Flandreau Cemetery as a historical place of significance in our town. We look forward to the upcoming installation. Special thanks to Mayor Noam Bramson, Peter Korn, Barbara Davis, Catherine Josset, and the City of New Rochelle.

Progress Continues

Contacts are being made in the right places. We are in talks to officially become an association organization. Cleanup ideas are being brainstormed. Awareness ideas are being designed. Every small step takes the overall process one step closer to completion.

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Preservation Effort Progresses

Interest in the cemetery seems to have been renewed. More members of the Flandreau line of descendants are coming forward with a desire to make a difference. Members of the community either for ecological reasons or for historical reasons are coming forward with a desire to make a difference. This combined energy has helped us to continue making progress.

In the past the community expressed that there should be a certain feel to the restoration process that is in keeping with the neighborhood. To this frame of mind a new sign was put in place to label the cemetery. No longer will the space be a forgotten and neglected plot of land. A terrific sign was located. It is a weather proof faux rock that fits in rather nicely to the landscape with a clear label of "Flandreau Cemetery".

Mr. Teddy Flandreau (descendant) and his son came a few afternoons and cleared the land of most of the brush that had abliterated the landscape. Trees that are in need of assistance or removal were tagged. Some are in peril of falling. Others are in need of some assistance.


Additionally, yet another Flandreau descendant has come forward and begun the work of clearing the weeds.


A cemetery neighbor is researching ecologically sound practices for preservation effort.


A cemetery is not built in a day. A cemetery is not built alone. But a cemetery can be rebuilt by the community overtime.

Have you driven past the cemetery lately? We would love to hear your thoughts?

Cleanup is Beginning

A cemetery neighbor, took the time to clear the cemetery some over the years. But the magic of nature has taken over once again. It certainly is better than a few years ago before her efforts. But there is still much to be done. A cleanup effort is beginning. As you can see from this later photo that things are progressing. A descendant of the Flandreau Family will be leading a cleanup effort this Spring. This blog will serve as an archive for the aforementioned progress of the Flandreau Cemetery Preservation.

Flandreau Cemetery

This blog will serve as a place to log all the trials and tribulations while attempting to preserve/conserve a small piece of New Rochelle history. There is a long forgotten cemetery on the town lines between New Rochelle and Larchmont in Westchester, NY. The property technically falls in New Rochelle. The city, descendants of the Flandreau family, local residents, and others are working together to begin the restoration.















(Photo shows the state of disrepair when the project started)

History of the cemetery:
Benjamin Flandreau (1718-1800) owned a large portion of New Rochelle in the 1700s. He created a family cemetery on his property which would become known as "The Old Flandreau Cemetery". In 1800 he became the first burial interred there. In previous years, photographs have been taken of headstones in the cemetery that date back to 1800. The last known burial here took place in 1892. Records compiled by the Daughters of the American Revolution show that at least at one point in time there some 25 headstones. There may exist more or less between ground sinking and vandalism.

We started with a website: http://www.geocities.com/neeneorb/flandreaupreservation.html to chart the progress of the preservation. But we have decided to move to a blogging format to provide for a forum for people to share their thoughts. This is not just my project. This is a group effort of like minded individuals. So please feel free to join the discussion, but let's speak/type respectfully.