We are the Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries, volunteers with the mission “to restore, improve and preserve the historic cemeteries located on West Main Street in Patchogue Village, Long Island.”

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This historic and sacred site dates to 1798 and contains the graves of Patchogue area citizens and veterans from the American revolution up to the Vietnam conflict. Once so severely overgrown that the grounds were almost unrecognizable as a cemetery, the property has been vastly improved by the work of volunteers over the past 25 years. 

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The property contains five cemeteries: The gated entrance on Main St. leads to the Lakeview and Rice cemeteries, owned by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.  "Waverly Avenue Cemetery” is the western side with Union, Old Episcopal (Methodist), and Gerard Cemeteries, which are legally abandoned and maintained by the Town of Brookhaven and volunteers. 

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Friends of Lakeview Cemeteries (formerly Cemetery Restoration Committee) was formed in 2006 as a committee of the Greater Patchogue Foundation, a 501c3 not for profit organization.   Our committee has been cleaning up and improving the property, in addition to volunteer and professional restoration of historic headstones. We’ve also worked with the US Veterans Administration to secure new military headstones for over a dozen Civil War veterans buried here. We have installed the iconic archway and gate on Main Street, two flagpoles, lighting, and walkways to make the property more accessible.  Our work days are held at least twice a year with dozens of volunteers and community organizations participating. In 2020, the town of Brookhaven installed a new fence along Waverly Avenue, and Boy Scout Troop 47 built a storage shed for an Eagle Scout project. 

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Funding for our projects has come from small and large donations from the community in addition to grants from the Suffolk County Parks Hotel-Motel Fund.