A monumental recognition

For two decades, Lynbrook Village Historian Art Mattson has led school tours, re-enactments and memorial ceremonies at the Bristol and Mexico Monument — also known as the Mariners Monument — in the Rockville Cemetery. Now, after a yearlong effort that included emails and meetings with government officials, along with the submission of a 40-page application, the cemetery and the monument have recently been added to the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the New York state register.

“This honor acknowledges what I’ve known for a long time,” said Mattson. “Our local cemetery, the monument and the mass grave are among the most important places in Long Island history, in Irish-American history and in United States history.”

139 victims of two shipwrecks off the Long Island coast, in 1836 and 1837, are buried beneath the monument.

Patricia C. Sympson, PhD., president of the Historical Society of East Rockaway & Lynbrook, said that they are very proud that the cemetery and the monument have both been added to the register.

“We had five places already on the national registry, starting with the first one in 1995, the Haviland Davison Grist Mill in East Rockaway. Are we going to stop there? Of course not! The history of our communities will continue to come alive as we pursue the recognition of interesting, beautiful and wicked history of East Rockaway and Lynbrook.”

“Art Mattson’s contribution to collecting and preserving Lynbrook history is greatly appreciated by the Historical Society of East Rockaway & Lynbrook,” said Madeline Pearson, an executive director of the organization. “Years ago, Art was impressed with the monument that stands as the tallest monument in the Rockville Cemetery. However, besides the wording around the base of the monument, there was not much known about this mariners monument that was dedicated to the memory of the victims of two shipwrecks, the Bristol and the Mexico.”