St. Albans National Cemetery

St. Albans was originally part of Jamaica, Queens, and consisted primarily of farmland throughout the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. With the construction of the Long Island Railroad in the 1870s, roads, such as Linden Boulevard, were built and by the First World War, St. Albans was developed beginning with the St. Albans Golf Course, and the subsequent residential neighborhoods, consisting of English-style Tudors, Colonial Revivals and others in brick, stucco and stone.

During World War II, the St. Albans campus was occupied by a temporary Naval Hospital built to house the wounded naval personnel returning from the War. One of nine throughout the country, it carried the largest patient load by the end of the War. When originally constructed, the hospital was built to accommodate 1,500 patients, 235 civilian employees, 73 officers, 71 nurses and 317 members of the Naval Hospital Corps in 1,000 wooden buildings (Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation 2008).

After the War, the Veterans Administration made the decision to build a 1,000-bed hospital at St. Albans to replace the Brooklyn Naval Hospital located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Navy determined a portion of the new hospital would be dedicated to the treatment of cancer. Other elements of the hospital included wards, treatment and clinic buildings, an administration building, kitchen, mess hall and patient recreational facilities. The general hospital was designed to handle special treatment in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, tuberculosis, and tumors. Construction of the new hospital involved the demolition and removal of a number of the World War II-era structures. With the closure of the Brooklyn Naval Hospital, St. Albans became the only naval hospital in the New York City area available to all service branches (Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation 2008).

By 1972, a portion of the hospital was given to the Veterans Administration for use as a Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1973, the Government was proposing to close the military hospital, which still included a number of wooden, barrack-like buildings that were being used for storage. The Veterans Administration transitioned the hospital to a nursing home facility in 1974 and upgraded and modernized the facility in 1977. In the same year, the Veterans Administration transferred 53 acres, with several buildings and a swimming pool, to the City of New York for use as a park (Roy Wilkins Park) (Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation 2008).

The new national cemetery was constructed to meet the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) National Cemetery Administration (NCA) goal of increasing burial options in areas with an unserved veteran population in the New York City area, as specified by Congress, in response to the Evaluation of the VA Burial Benefits Program (August 2008) of at least 80,000, in accordance with the Service Members Civil Relief Act, also known as the Veteran's Benefit Act of 2010. It also meets the goal of the NCA's Urban Initiative which noted a gap in burial options of five urban areas across the country and created an initiative to establish new columbarium-only national cemeteries within the city's core. The project redevelops a 5.25-acre site within VA St. Albans Community Living Center (St. Albans VA Hospital) campus which consisted of an abandoned military barracks built in 1968. The new national cemetery will provide 3,760 niches and several future phases will be developed to accommodate up to 35,920 niches over a 100-year period. It will be the 9th VA national cemetery in the state of New York.

Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. Recipients receive the Medal of Honor from the President on behalf of Congress. It was first awarded during the Civil War and the eligibility criteria, medal design, and recognition on a recipients' grave marker have all evolved over time. There are 435 Medal of Honor recipients interred at VA national cemeteries including 6 double recipients.