Sag Harbor Partnership Completes Construction Of Fence At St. David A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery

The final resting places of some of Sag Harbor’s historical figures recently got a security upgrade courtesy of the Sag Harbor Partnership and the Eastville Community Historical Society.

The St. David A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery on Eastville Avenue will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday at 10 a.m. to unveil a new, 4-foot-tall steel fence intended to protect the cemetery from damage by vandals.

Noted abolitionists, the founders of the church itself, and other individuals, including Anna Johnson, the last owner of the building that is now the headquarters of the Eastville Community Historical Society, and David Hempstead, for whom Hempstead Street was named, are all buried in the cemetery.

According to Michael Butler, chairman of the historical society’s cemetery preservation committee, plans for the fence have started and stopped within the last 12 years. April Gornik, a founding member of the Sag Harbor Partnership, said the project was given new life in March, when she found the Iron Fence Shop in Kent, Ohio, and worked out a price of approximately $24,000 to purchase the fence, with installation being done by a separate firm.

Fundraising was the next step—in addition to a $6,700 grant from the Archaeological Institute of America and $1,300 raised in donations, an additional $16,000 was donated this past summer by Sally Susman, a frequent summer resident of Sag Harbor and executive vice president of corporate affairs for Pfizer.

Ms. Gornik said she met Ms. Susman by chance at a dinner this past summer and that Ms. Susman asked her point blank what community service project needed attention most urgently. Ms. Gornik mentioned the fence, Ms. Susman asked how much it would cost, Ms. Gornik mentioned the price and how much they had raised, and Ms. Susman calculated that $16,000 was left to be raised.

“And she went, ‘I will give it to you’—just like that, on the spot!” Ms Gornik said. “I actually burst into tears, small tears, because I was not expecting it, and at that point I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to move on this thing!’”

From there, other members of the community offered their time and services, including Moises A. Cerdas Builder LLC, which offered to put up the fence at a discounted rate. “It’s really about the whole community coming through and making this really historic thing happen,” Ms. Gornik said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Mr. Butler said.