April 25, 2008
Luxury Condo Evicts 211 Deceased Residents
As we all learned from the 1982 film Poltergeist, it is never a good idea to build anything over a burial ground. Seems even developers took this warning to heart, as one just removed 211 bodies from a graveyard that's in the way of their sweet new luxury condos. The NY Post reports:
A Brooklyn church yesterday cleared out the remains of 211 corpses that had been buried for more than a century in an adjacent crypt to help pave the way for a controversial luxury condo complex.Demolition is slated to be done by the end of May, but protesters are now up in arms over the eerie excavation. The 211 old "residents" of the address have been moved to Cypress Hills Cemetery; but will any future residents dare sign a lease on what's certain to be a haunted condo?The 109-year-old United Methodist Church in Bay Ridge is under contract to sell its church and grounds along Fourth Avenue for $9.75 million to developer Abe Batech, who wants to replace it with a six- to seven-story condo project.
Photo of the United Methodist Church in Bay Ridge via allwaysny's flickr.
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Certain to be haunted? What kind of superstitious nonsense is that? There's a HUGE difference between honoring the dead and being scared of them.
Is there anything developers wouldn't do to make a dollar?
ooooh, i hope their philippe starck showers rain blood! that'll teach those yuppie punks!
What bothers me most is the hideous thought of a graceful and charming old church sitting next to egregious apartment complexes.
Good God Almighty.
i forsee a certain crane collapse and other accidents. haunted?
Luxury New York City real estate is hard to come by.. that's just the facts!
When live folks need space, I guess then, the dead folks have got to go.
AS they say, the sqeeky wheel gets the grease..and cemetaries have always been very quiet as a whole.
Why tear down the 109 year old church?
Yeah, Glenwood - Bay Ridge & 268th St are certainly Luxury neighboorhoods. Moron.
I'll send the guys from "Ghosthunters" an email in advance cuz there will be some really bad vibes coming from this place for sure.
I have a hunch Charles Widmore is behind this.
Does Fresh Direct deliver to haunted buildings? I know they are very discerning..
#1 - No one REALLY thinks it will be haunted. Pretty sure that's a jokey joke.
I can understand the people who want to preserve the church building seizing upon this to help their cause, but it's a little silly considering this from the Post article:
"It was the second time they had been moved. The congregation dates back to 1830 to earlier Bay Ridge locations, and the remains were moved to the existing church site when it opened in 1899 - but without individually identifying each corpse."
So why is this move more of a desecration that one, which the church itself did?
By the way, the congregation now numbers about 40; they've decided to sell the current church building and move a smaller one nearby.
Did they really move the bodies? Or did they LEAVE THE BODIES AND ONLY MOVE THE HEADSTONES?!
"Did they really move the bodies? Or did they LEAVE THE BODIES AND ONLY MOVE THE HEADSTONES?!"
The bodies were in a crypt, not a graveyard as the Gothamist piece says... which means it's unlikely that there were headstones. And they were moved to that crypt in 1899 "without individually identifying each corpse," which would make it even less likely.
God is in his holy temple...
From a local:
http://leftinbayridge.blogspot.com/
LOL petebfd!
As Popeye said, ghosks is the bunk.
The building should remain there; we know that whatever Fedders excrescence featuring concrete lawns, exposed gas meters, and rusting fire escapes they put there will never match the 1890-era craftsmanship it will replace.
It's a heartbreaking loss, really bad.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Let this be a lesson to all those rent stabilized and rent contol renters. If you are a deadbeat you will be removed.
Im a ghost. Im all for this new luxury condo.
At the WTC site, the discovery of a partial bone fragment leads to endless shutdowns and excavations; at this site, 211 fully intact skeletons get thrown into the waste receptacle along with some old pews and other such religious detritus. Not all the dead are the same, so here's the pecking order:
1: WTC 9-11 victims.
2: Mafia celebrities.
3: Presumed slaves.
4: Regular celebrities.
5: Ed Koch.
6: Hedge fund managers.
7: Waiting list hopefuls.
8: You and I.
9: Creedmoor "accidents".
10: Anyone in the way of a luxury condo.