As I recall in our research we found that one of the cemeteries removed (not very well done, in March according to some witnesses) the Methodist one, had been a "satellite" of the main churchyard on the east side of Second Ave. The church was removed, apparently for a courthouse, today the famous, still in the courthouse architecture, "Anthology Film Archives" (32 Second Ave.) on the corner of 2nd Street and 2nd Ave. (across the street is one of the famous Marble Vault Cemeteries. It has held famous people, i.e., original Maya researcher; John Erickson (inventor in marine technology, "Stirling" air engines and other inventions, a former Village resident, since returned to Sweden. He is credited with being the inventor of the modern ship propeller, the "ironclad" USS Monitor, parts of which recently salvaged and opened on exhibit at Newport News, Virginia by underwater archaeology.) The former courthouse is a venue for all sorts of media, is rentable, and has many donors in the media businesses. When the courthouse was going up, they found that some of the burials had not been removed and called a special session of the New York State Legislature, which determined on vote that the burial(s) were to be handled by the NY State Dept. of Education. Unfortunately, the records of this proceeding burned in an archive fire in Albany, though the results of the hearing were published by the "usual" publishers of government records, so the argument made has been lost to the fire. This was perhaps how the state museum has come to control said "problems" and I wish I could have determined, though we only had the "satellite" to research, what the nature of the interred was and why the whys and wherefores in Albany were determined such. Former President Monroe, before the Civil War was long a resident of NYC and expired was interred in a marble vault cemetery nearby. The Virginia legislature voted to "carry him back to ol' Virginny" to the Hollywood Cemetery there. The whole City of New York stopped to pay its respects as the former President was taken to the dock it's reported. Some of the marble vault remains are still being moved to other locations.
Fortunately for some of this information, the Works Progress Administration (WPA "...after 1939 Work Projects Administration" - Wikipedia) had hired writers to write the ecclesiastical histories of the different denominations in the City of New York, which are on record in the Main Library of the NY Public Library, or we found we would have been clueless on their histories or would have had to devote much more time ascertaining it. It also helped that two recent publications had arrived one on the cemeteries of NYC the other on the history of Quakerism in the City of New York a republication of an earlier history. The Methodist was moved to the recently NY State legislature proscription that they not be larger than 250 acres in any one county, by straddling two, 500 acres, its reported. The Quakers to their lands on the "Coney Island Road" which with additional parkland, became today's "Prospect Park" in Brooklyn, NY.
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