Forest
Park Cemetery was incorporated in 1897. Originally consisting of about
200 acres, the cemetery encompassed a picturesque area east of the
City of Troy in a then agricultural area. In 1927, a major portion
of the cemetery lands were sold to the Troy Country Club. The cemetery
now consists of about 21.7 acres. The surrounding area is residential.
Forest
Park Cemetery was designed by Garnet Douglass Baltimore, the first
Afro-American to graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1881).
Baltimore has been credited with the design of Troy's Prospect Park
and was consulting engineer at the Oakwood Cemetery for thirty years.
The cemetery was never completed as the Forest Park Cemetery Corporation
went bankrupt in 1914. The only structure to be erected was a granite
Receiving Tomb, featuring a rolled copper roof and domed glass skylight
and containing 128 marble catacombs.
The
cemetery was reincorporated as the Forest Hills Cemetery in 1918,
but this corporation went bankrupt in the 1930s. From that point until
1990, the cemetery lacked an official overseer and was considered
"abandoned." However, burial records were maintained for
many years by Mr. William Christian, who served as voluntary caretaker.
By the late 1960s, the cemetery had established a reputation as one
of the "most haunted" cemeteries in the nation.
Burial
records indicate that more than 1,000 people have been interred at
Forest Park Cemetery. The Town of Brunswick formed a Forest Park Cemetery
Advisory Council in 1991, which disbanded in 1994. In 1997, the Town
Board appointed a new Forest Park Cemetery Advisory Council to develop
a plan for restoration and conservation of the cemetery.
