Moravian Cemetery & Todt Hill
Todt Hill is the highest natural point on the Atlantic coastal plain south of Maine, and the cemetery on its slope holds the Vanderbilt family mausoleum designed by the architect of the Met.
- What it costs
- Free to walk. The Vanderbilt mausoleum itself is on private ground and cannot be approached.
- Best in
- Fall, Spring, Summer
- Where
- 2205 Richmond Road, Staten Island, NY 10306
- Official site
- sigreenbelt.org
The highest point on the coast
Todt Hill rises to about 401 feet — the highest natural point on the Atlantic coastal plain south of Maine, and the highest point in New York City.
It's a glacial moraine ridge, wooded, with serpentine bedrock underneath that supports unusual plant communities. The Greenbelt trails run over the top of it.
There is no dramatic summit view — it's forested — but the fact of it surprises people who assume New York City is flat.
The Moravian Cemetery
113 acres on the hill's lower slope, founded in the 1740s and still active, laid out as a rural cemetery with mature trees and winding roads. It's free, open, and pleasant to walk.
The Vanderbilt family mausoleum is here — designed by Richard Morris Hunt, who designed the Metropolitan Museum's facade, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted. Cornelius Vanderbilt and generations after him are inside.
The mausoleum sits on a private, gated section that is not open to the public and cannot be approached. You can see the setting and the grounds around it; that's the extent of it. Don't plan a trip expecting otherwise.
Combine with the Greenbelt
The real reason to come up here is the Greenbelt. The trails start adjacent to the cemetery and run through the best forest in New York City.
Autumn is the season. Walk the cemetery first — the tree collection is mature and turns beautifully — then pick up the trail and go up the hill.
Getting there
Ferry to St. George, then the S74 bus along Richmond Road — about 30 minutes. Around an hour and twenty from Lower Manhattan.
The cemetery entrance is on Richmond Road and the Greenbelt trails run up the hill directly behind it, so the two are one trip.
Getting around once you're there
The cemetery's internal roads are paved and drivable with gentle grades. The Greenbelt trails up Todt Hill are unpaved, steep and not accessible.