Prospect Cemetery

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“Prospect Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in the Jamaica section of the New York City borough of Queens. It was established in 1668 and known as the "burring plas." The cemetery's original main gate was on Beaver Road which led from Sutphin Boulevard to Jamaica Avenue.”
Wikipedia article Prospect Cemetery (Queens), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 108 National Register listings published here for Queens County · listed in 2002 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 159th St. and Beaver Rd., Jamaica, 11433
When was it listed? January 2002
Category. site
Borough. Queens
National Register reference number. 01001438 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1889 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Prospect Cemetery, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Prospect Cemetery, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

2,813 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2,813 fires within 5 miles of Prospect Cemetery between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,329 acres in total. 159 started naturally. 168 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2028
Arson/incendiarism	168
Natural	159
Smoking	140
Misuse of fire by a minor	90
Equipment and vehicle use	71
Debris and open burning	64
Recreation and ceremony	49
Power generation/transmission/distribution	40
Fireworks	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10 acres	Gateway National Recreation Area	FOUNTAIN1
9 September 1998	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Gateway National Recreation Area	CREEK19

Every fire recorded in Queens County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Prospect Cemetery: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Bay Shore Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Queens County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1889 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1891 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1898 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1947 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1979 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1994 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
First Reformed Church	0.1 miles	1980
St. Monica's Church	0.1 miles	1980
Office of the Register	0.2 miles	1980
Jamaica Savings Bank	0.2 miles	1983
Grace Episcopal Church Complex	0.2 miles	1983
Sidewalk Clock at 161-11 Jamaica Avenue, New York, NY	0.2 miles	1985

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001438 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Queens County	All 108 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.