Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries

09/10/2026

We will be cleaning headstones tomorrow morning at 9:30. New volunteers always welcome!

09/01/2026

Unfortunately, the weather Wednesday and especially Thursday will prevent us from headstone cleaning this week. Fingers crossed for next week. Enjoy your Holiday Weekend!

08/30/2026

Volunteers are at the cemeteries this morning, cleaning headstones and continuing the battle against invasive plants in the oldest part of the property. At this point, the main goal in that regard is just to keep a path open to the graves of John and Catherine Beers that date to 1798. This requires pulling plants out of the ground by hand every few weeks. The remainder of the area is a much bigger project as you can see by our panoramic photo here.

08/27/2026

Here’s an example of the MANY reasons we love working with Father James and St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Patchogue!

08/25/2026

Due to a personal scheduling conflict and predicted bad weather Thursday and Friday, headstone cleaning is rescheduled for this Sunday morning at 10:00. See you then!

08/22/2026

Thanks to our friend Gerard Bringmann for passing this along to us!

Lakeview Cemetery in Patchogue dates to 1791, when burial grounds were established behind the Union Church at Waverly Avenue and West Main Street. The church is gone, but the cemetery remains, divided today between the abandoned Waverly Avenue Cemetery and property owned by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese.

Among its more unusual features is the Smith Genealogical Monument, described as the largest white-bronze monument in the United States. The cemetery also contains four 20-foot monuments to the Smith sisters, members of a prominent local family whose land and philanthropy helped shape Patchogue.

Four sailors from the 1895 wreck of the Louis V. Place are buried there after the Smith sisters provided eight burial plots for the crew. The other four plots remain empty. Local lore has since supplied the inevitable stories of sailors being seen walking through the cemetery.

Lakeview also contains the graves of veterans from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam, suffrage advocate Elizabeth Oakes Smith, and George W. Tims, a 10-year-old boy who died in 1855 whose headstone identifies him as a “colored boy, bound to A. Roe.” More than 1,000 headstones are believed to be on the Waverly side alone, although many are now missing or buried underground.

Today, restoration work continues to preserve the cemetery, locate missing graves and repair hundreds of stones in need of professional attention.

Read more about the history, notable graves and local legends of Lakeview Cemetery: https://scifisland.com/lakeview-cemetery-the-patchogue-graveyard-full-of-poets-patriots-and-possibly-ghosts/

08/18/2026

Headstone cleaning tomorrow at 9:00! Trying to take advantage of the expected cooler weather.

08/11/2026

We won’t be cleaning headstones tomorrow but will be on Thursday. 9:30. See you there!

08/05/2026

Here’s a “Before” picture of 3 headstones cleaned this morning. Thanks to new volunteers Stephanie and Hollis(we missed you, Lisa and Alison!) Check here next week to see some “After” pictures and for announcements about upcoming headstone cleaning.

08/04/2026

We will be cleaning headstones tomorrow morning, 9:30 to 11:30 or so. We are canceling Thursday morning due to projected high temperature.