Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries Restore Dozens of 18th-century Gravestones, Secure VA Markers

Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries announced that volunteers have restored dozens of 18th-century gravestones at the Lakeview Cemetery complex just east of Waverly Avenue and north of West Main Street in Patchogue Village, including graves that date as far back as 1798. The group also says it has worked with the U.S. Veterans Administration to secure new military headstones for more than a dozen Civil War veterans buried on the site that contains about 400 gravestones.

The restoration work traces to long-running preservation efforts that began in 1992 when Patchogue historian Hans Henke led a campaign to reclaim the property from severe overgrowth. The Cemetery Restoration Committee formed in 2006 and later became Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries as a committee of the Greater Patchogue Foundation, a 501(c)(3). The group’s stated mission is “to restore, improve and preserve the historic cemeteries located on West Main Street in Patchogue Village, Long Island.”

Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries says the recent work prioritized damaged and leaning headstones, including markers for about a dozen Revolutionary- and Civil War–era veterans identified in earlier reporting. Greater Patchogue Foundation materials and local posts note the organization has received VA money to assist in veteran-marker replacement and that individual military headstones have been arranged for over a dozen Civil War interments, while other veteran stones remain on the restoration list.

The organization has rolled out several programs to sustain the work. The group announced a Save the Stones initiative to appeal for wider community support, and operates a Repair Fund to pay for professional repair, cleaning, and re-setting of badly damaged stones. Volunteer teams run a Straighten and Clean program that uses a widely recognized “no-touch” cleaning methodology and an Adopt a Plot option; work days are held at least twice yearly with dozens of volunteers and community organizations participating. Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries lists its contact and donation details: mail checks to Greater Patchogue Foundation, 15 North Ocean Avenue, Patchogue NY 11772 with “cemetery” in the memo line, call (631) 475-0121, or email lakeviewcemeteries@gmail.com.

Preservation professionals emphasize the technical side of the work. Preservation specialist von Bernewitz, who has led teams that fully restored six cemeteries and conducted preservation work at four more across Long Island and who holds masonry restoration training credentials, said: “Gravestone preservation is as much science as it is history. We don’t guess - we research, document, and use proven materials and techniques.” Friends of Lakeview notes that many stones require experienced contractors for re-setting and mortar repairs, which is the Repair Fund’s intended purpose.

Volunteers underscore the local, living connection to the stones. Volunteer Christopher Capobianco said: “The longer we go past those wars like the Civil War, American Revolution, it almost doesn't seem real. When you stand here and look at a headstone of a veteran that served and some of the headstones list when they served the New York regimens, the different troops that they served in, to me that makes that history come alive and it's not just something you're reading in a book.” The group also maintains visible improvements on the site, including a Main Street archway and gate, two flagpoles, lighting and walkways, and notes that the Town of Brookhaven installed a new fence along Waverly Avenue in 2020.