![]() Machpelah is distinguished as the burial place of master magician Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss). ![]() Machpelah’s imposing 1928 entrance building on Cypress Hills Street deteriorated with the cemetery’s decline, its offices ransacked and the cemetery’s records scattered around the inside, and was demolished in 2013. ” Today the six-acre cemetery is administered by David Jacobson, who operates several of the city’s smaller Jewish burial grounds, and is well kept though timeworn and frequently deserted-burials are now rare at Machpelah Cemetery. ![]() Location of the four cemeteries today (OpenStreetMap) Machpelah Cemetery A 1959 view of the recently-demolished entrance building at Machpelah Cemetery (NYC Municipal Archives)Īn 1881 cemetery guide describes Machpelah Cemetery, which was established around 1855, as “a Jewish burial place of age and renown,” located “on high, sandy ground, that is well wooded and shaded,” “a handsome place and well laid out, and well cared for.” By the late 1980s, the cemetery had been abandoned to the state because its board had run out of money and its grounds had become a neglected “impassable jungle. ![]() Newspaper reports and property records often confuse the cemeteries and their ownership as well. The communal nature of the four cemeteries has frequently led to mix-ups in burial records, obituaries, and other accounts regarding which cemetery an individual was actually interred in. This shared history can be seen in the fact that there are no fences separating the cemeteries from one another-the grounds run together and a visitor entering the gate of one cemetery may wander down a path and suddenly find him or herself in one of the adjoining cemeteries without realizing it. Although each of these cemeteries has its own entrance and is separately owned today, early in their history they were managed cooperatively by Machpelah Cemetery Association. Jointly, these cemeteries-Machpelah Cemetery, Union Field Cemetery, New Union Field Cemetery, and Hungarian Union Field Cemetery-now cover about 60 acres where over 60,000 individuals have been interred. He uses his writing powers for good once again in this exciting new middle grade novel.A 1913 map showing Machpelah and the Union Field cemeteries situated west of Fresh Pond Road (Cypress Hills Street) and north of Cypress Hills Road (Cypress Avenue)īeginning in the 1850s, a number of Jewish organizations began to acquire large tracts of land along Fresh Pond Road and Cypress Hills Road in Queens to create what would become four cemeteries situated on present-day Cypress Hills Street and Cypress Avenue in the Glendale-Ridgewood area. Should Harry ignore what must be a hoax? Or should he give it a try and take Houdini up on this death-defying offer?ĭan Gutman is the award-winning author of series including My Weird School, The Genius Files, and the baseball card series, including Honus & Me. What's more, Houdini's offering Harry a chance to go back in time and experience it for himself. It's hard for Harry to believe that Houdini is really contacting him, but this Houdini texts the secrets to all of the escape tricks the dead Houdini used to do. What is he supposed to do, then, when someone starts texting him claiming that they're Houdini, communicating from beyond the grave? Respond, of course. But Harry DOES live in Houdini's old New York City home, and he definitely knows everything there is to know about Houdini's life. And when Houdini asks for help in coming back to life, it seems like an amazing chance.or could it be Houdini's greatest trick of all?Įleven-year-old Harry Mancini is NOT Harry Houdini-the famous escape artist who died in 1926. Harry has always admired the famous escape artist Houdini. ![]()
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