The Eastville Community Historical Society in Sag Harbor is reeling over the vandalism of gravestones in the St. David A.M.E. Zion Cemetery on Eastville Avenue. The damage was discovered on Tuesday as members of the society were outdoors on a nice day and happened to stop by for a visit.
Georgette Grier-Key, Eastville’s executive director, said yesterday that vandals damaged a fence and “nicked up” two particularly important gravestones, those belonging to the Hempstead and Green families, who were prominent residents of Eastville many years ago.
Eastville was one of Sag Harbor’s historically African-American neighborhoods. Along with Chatfield’s Hill, its legacy was lost to time and development, though three such communities, Azurest, Ninevah, and Sag Harbor Hills, remain intact today with additional preservation efforts underway.
Other gravestones in the cemetery appear to have been scraped or scratched, and a prohibited chemical seems to have been used, Ms. Grier-Key said. There were also ruts in the grass in some areas, and a person or persons may have tried to move other headstones that had previously fallen, damaging them further.
This is not the first time the cemetery has been vandalized, though it has been quite some time since the last incident, she said. She suspected that there had been more than one perpetrator, as the stones are all quite heavy. Sag Harbor Village police are investigating.
“Now do we have to lock the cemetery? Put a chain on it?” Ms. Grier-Key asked. “To replace stones is very expensive, and we don’t want to have to replace them. They yield information that is so precious. . . . It was really horrific.”
Those interested in helping Eastville restore the cemetery and its fence can donate via its website, eastvillehistorical.org.