The site, located along Corona Avenue and now largely hidden beneath a parking lot behind an apartment complex, came to wider public attention in 2011 when construction workers discovered human remains during excavation work.
According to the city's medical examiner at the time, workers found the body of a young Black woman inside an airtight iron coffin. The woman was described as remarkably well preserved and is believed to have died before the federal abolition of slavery.
The property was once home to a church founded by the community's first generation of free African Americans. The church, St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, owned the land before selling it in the 1930s and relocating to Jackson Heights.
"There were four men who purchased the land in 1828 one year after the full emancipation of slavery," said the Rev. Kimberly Detherage, pastor of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church. "Them also being able to purchase the land in the first place was a significant thing."
Ten human remains have been found at the burial ground. Historians believe as many as 300 freed slaves may be buried there.
Detherage said the property served a broader role within the community beyond its function as a church.
"It was also a place of education. It was utilized as a school. People came like Frederick Douglas and others and gave speeches," she said.
Detherage is backing a new initiative to designate the site as a landmark and is urging the city to purchase the property and convert it into a memorial honoring those buried there and the community's history.
"To know the type of jobs and families and what their desires and even with regards to their economy and to know this was a rich thriving economy," Detherage said.
Supporters of the effort say preserving the site would help recognize the history of free African Americans in Queens and the community that once gathered there.
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