"Spirits Alive!" Haunts Kew Gardens Cemetary With Historically Accurate Spirits from New York City's Past October 15, 2011

“SPIRITS ALIVE!” HAUNTS KEW GARDENS CEMETERY WITH HISTORICALLY ACCURATE SPIRITS FROM NEW YORK CITY’S PAST
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Honors Students to Portray People They Researched and Located Using Archival Documents

“Spirits Alive!” a unique self-guided walking tour featuring 20 student actors from the Aquinas Honor Society of the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates, dressed in period costumes portraying some of Maple Grove Cemetery’s most illustrious and historical figures from various walks of life will take place on Saturday, October 15 from 3-6 p.m. in Maple Grove Cemetery, located at 127-15 Kew Gardens Road in Kew Gardens, Queens.


The students from the Aquinas Honor Society from the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates researched and documented each of the historical figures they will portray, each of whom played important roles in the growth of our city and our nation.

Among the historical figures, students will portray:

- Elisabeth Japp, whose husband was the engineer who built the subway tunnels under the East River in the early 1900s
- LaVergne Bronk, whose ancestors where the first European settlers of the Bronx, which still bears their family name
- William Nelson, a World War I soldier who fought at the Battle of the Argonne Forest in France
- Elma Stebbins, the wife of famed hymnist composer George Stebbins
- Alonzo Adams, a sea captain who became king of an island in the Caribbean
- Kate Claghorn, a young woman who earned her PhD from Yale in the late 1800s and was one of the signers of the Manifesto creating the NAACP
- Madame Helen Bakhmeteff, the wife of the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. in 1917, who was witness to the fall of Czar Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra

Earlier this year, students of the Aquinas Honor Society discovered documents proving Maple Grove was the African-American burial ground of the historic Shiloh First Presbyterian Church, whose interred members were removed from the vaults of their church and brought to Maple Grove in 1877 and this will be a highlighted part of the tour. The church was on the Underground Railroad and had a huge impact on the anti- slavery movement for decades. Many of the most influential figures during the Civil War period spoke at the church, including Frederick Douglass. Aquinas students dressed in period Civil War era costumes will appear as members of the congregation and convey the poignant and powerful story of this landmark. The Aquinas Society has been instrumental in this annual community from the beginning when it started began in 2004.

Visitors will receive easy-to-follow maps and programs. The ticket cost is $5 for adults, but Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery members and children under 12 are free.

WHEN:
Saturday, October 15, 2011
WHERE:
Maple Grove Cemetery
127-15 Kew Gardens Road
Kew Gardens, Queens