STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Headstones are shifting, graves are sinking further into the earth, the ground floods and the gates do not close at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park in Oakwood.
Douglass, who escaped slavery and went on to become a famous abolitionist and trusted adviser to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, is not buried at the 17-acre cemetery on Amboy Road. But thousands of African-Americans have been interred there.
"The fencing around here is horrific," said Patricia Willis, a plot owner and CEO of Friends of Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, a nonprofit she created in hopes of saving the cemetery, which opened in 1935. "The gate is broken, it's been broken for years, it hasn't been closed, this place never closes. The bricks off the wall were laying all over the place."
The broken gate is just the beginning.
There is a flooding issue; poor drainage leads to puddles near the graves. And volunteer maintenance workers have been using wood chips to replace dirt and grass.
All of it has resulted in the graves and tombstones sinking further into the ground.
"When it rains, the roadway is covered with water," said Willis, whose parents, cousins and several other family members are buried there. "When I first came out here, that used to not be a problem."
NOTHING NEW
Poor maintenance at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park is nothing new. According to an Advance report in 2008, the cemetery entrance was marked by a ruptured fence and broken bricks.
This was nearly three years after its director was removed by court order and a $667,593 judgment was filed against her, the Advance reported. The state attorney general said money went missing from the cemetery's permanent maintenance fund under the direction of former director Dorothea Morton King.
After King was removed, the court-appointed receiver became Arthur Friedman, who operated and controlled United Hebrew Cemetery with his wife, Ilana.
In that 2008 Advance report, it stated that Friedman had located about $400,000 of cemetery money in bank accounts scattered around the city. That money was put back into a permanent maintenance fund and, although the trust fund could not be tapped, a portion of it was invested.
Friedman noted at the time that the cemetery received a small investment income -- about $20,000 to $25,000 a year -- to plug operational deficits.
However, both Friedman and his wife were removed from United Hebrew Cemetery and Frederick Douglass Memorial Park in 2011 after they diverted money for personal expenses that belonged to United Hebrew Cemetery, according to an Advance report.
Today, the court-appointed receiver is Dominick Tarantino, who also runs Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.
"I think it's maintained pretty good for a cemetery that size and the financial trouble that there is," said Tarantino, who was appointed in 2011.
REACHING OUT TO OFFICIALS
However, Councilwoman Debi Rose said the condition of the cemetery "has been an ongoing issue of concern for me, as I have generations of family members buried at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, as do many of my constituents."
Willis has reached out to several state and city officials for help with saving the cemetery, including Rose, Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Joe Borelli.
The State Department said that representatives visited the cemetery in May, and the state is looking into solutions for its upkeep.
"I have convened several meetings that have brought together all stakeholders, including Friends of Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, state Sen. Andrew Lanza, former state Sen. Bill Perkins, the state Attorney General's office, the state Division of Cemeteries and more, to move forward with a positive resolution," spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla said.
Borelli's office said it has allocated $5,000 to Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries specifically for the Frederick Douglass Memorial Park. While Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries cannot take over the memorial park because the cemetery still actively conducts burials and has visitors, it can make donations, which can go toward maintaining the memorial park.
The State Department said it is also working with several parties to devise a plan which would include resurrecting the cemetery's defunct board of directors. Once it is re-established, the board would be able to fundraise and receive grants for upkeep and maintenance.
"We are also working with various parties to try to devise a longer-term solution to the issues facing the cemetery," Padilla said.