The Police Arlington: Restoring a PBA Legacy

Patrolman Lester Lewis is Missing

Most people have heard of famous missing persons like Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater and Amelia Earhart. But Lester Lewis? He was seven and a half feet tall, weighed nearly 2,000 pounds (slim build) and stood a fixed post for 94 years overlooking his fallen comrades at the Police Arlington. On the evening of April 11, 1966, the statue for which Metropolitan Police Patrolman Lester Lewis was the model was stolen along with several bronze plaques from the Police Arlington, never to be seen again — at least not yet. The statue’s base was once reported located in a Brooklyn sanitation dump, but nothing else.

Patrolman Lewis had been a member of the Broadway Squad, whose officers were chosen for their physical appearance, especially their height. To be a member of the Broadway Squad back in the 1860s, you had to be over six feet tall with a formidable physical bearing.

Lewis’s post was Broadway and Duane Street just a few blocks north of City Hall and within a stone’s throw of the city’s notorious “Five Points” district made famous in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.

How Documents Spared From The Trash Restored a Piece of PBA History

Who knows how many years they had languished there? They were historic documents from the time of the PBA’s predecessor organization, but it was a stamp that saved them from oblivion. (Click on the document, above, to see a full size reproduction.)

According to former PBA Bronx Financial Secretary John Young, his interest in stamps brought the documents into his possession back in 1992 when the PBA offices were moving from 250 Broadway to their present location at 40 Fulton Street.

“They were moving an old safe when Lou Matarazzo (a former PBA president who was then a Queens Trustee) spotted an envelope between the safe and the wall,” John said. “In the envelope were two deeds to the original cemetery plots purchased back in 1871 and 1873 by the Metropolitan Police Benevolent Burying Association.”

The first deed, dated March 6, 1871, had a $3 Internal Revenue Department stamp affixed. Knowing that John was an avid collector, Lou gave him that deed and a second one dated July 15, 1873. The transfer of the burial ground to the Honor Legion had invalidated both deeds in 1951.

The deeds piqued John’s interest so he began to research the association’s history and delivered a comprehensive report detailing that history to then-PBA President Phil Caruso. John has since donated the important historical documents back to the PBA.



		Patrolman Lester Lewis is Missing Most people have heard of famous missing persons like Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater and Amelia Earhart. But Lester Lewis? He was seven and a half feet tall, weighed nearly 2,000 pounds (slim build) and stood a fixed post for 94 years overlooking his fallen comrades at the Police Arlington. On the evening of April 11, 1966, the statue for which Metropolitan Police Patrolman Lester Lewis was the model was stolen along with several bronze plaques from the Police Arlington, never to be seen again — at least not yet. The statue’s base was once reported located in a Brooklyn sanitation dump, but nothing else. Patrolman Lewis had been a member of the Broadway Squad, whose officers were chosen for their physical appearance, especially their height. To be a member of the Broadway Squad back in the 1860s, you had to be over six feet tall with a formidable physical bearing. Lewis’s post was Broadway and Duane Street just a few blocks north of City Hall and within a stone’s throw of the city’s notorious “Five Points” district made famous in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. How Documents Spared From The Trash Restored a Piece of PBA History Who knows how many years they had languished there? They were historic documents from the time of the PBA’s predecessor organization, but it was a stamp that saved them from oblivion. (Click on the document, above, to see a full size reproduction.) According to former PBA Bronx Financial Secretary John Young, his interest in stamps brought the documents into his possession back in 1992 when the PBA offices were moving from 250 Broadway to their present location at 40 Fulton Street. “They were moving an old safe when Lou Matarazzo (a former PBA president who was then a Queens Trustee) spotted an envelope between the safe and the wall,” John said. “In the envelope were two deeds to the original cemetery plots purchased back in 1871 and 1873 by the Metropolitan Police Benevolent Burying Association.” The first deed, dated March 6, 1871, had a $3 Internal Revenue Department stamp affixed. Knowing that John was an avid collector, Lou gave him that deed and a second one dated July 15, 1873. The transfer of the burial ground to the Honor Legion had invalidated both deeds in 1951. The deeds piqued John’s interest so he began to research the association’s history and delivered a comprehensive report detailing that history to then-PBA President Phil Caruso. John has since donated the important historical documents back to the PBA.
n a small hill in Cypress Hills Cemetery, near the Brooklyn-Queens border, lies a little-known section called The Police Arlington. Its burial plots are, in a sense, the physical manifestation of an idea that gave birth to the concept of police fraternal organizations and, ultimately, police unions. In this bucolic setting overlooking the graves of hundreds of Civil War dead, 19th-Century and early-20th-Century New York City policemen who had died penniless or alone — six of them in the line of duty — have been laid to rest with the dignity they had earned defending our city. And it was the Metropolitan Police Benevolent Burying Association — forerunner of today’s PBA — that established the site around 1871. Today, as it was then, the area is traced with a circle of marble with four walkways leading up to a central eightfoot- high pedestal reminiscent of the one that the Statue of Liberty stands on. For about 90 years, the 7 1/2-foot bronze figure of a bearded Metropolitan Police officer stood high on that pedestal at parade rest, hands joined in front. Beneath the statue was a large bronze plaque displaying the shield of the Metropolitan Police, the badge the NYPD’s was modeled on. The site was designed to be a place of pride to honor the bravery of officers who responded to the Civil War draft riots, but it has gone through several alternating cycles of fame and disrepair during its 138-year history. In 1966, the statue and plaques were stolen in the dead of night and have never been recovered. Now, the Police Arlington is enjoying a renewal of sorts, with a groundswell of interest among active and retired NYPD officers anxious to see the stolen statue and plaques historically restored. It’s not the first restoration attempt, but this time — through the persistent efforts of men like retired officers Mike Bosak, John Reilly, John Young, Bob Berl and others — the crusade may prove successful. Research shows that the Metropolitan Police Benevolent Burying Association, which had been chartered a year earlier, acquired 500 burial plots in 1871. The organizers were inspired by an act of Congress providing plots to veterans, particularly at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The concept was applied to the Metropolitan Police Department, and the Police Arlington was born. Initially, it cost a dollar in dues for lifetime membership in the association, which entitled the member to burial if requested by a next of kin. After the Metro Police was consolidated into the newly formed NYPD, the site fell from memory and became barely known, even to police officers, only four decades after opening. A 1915 document that appears to be a recruitment piece for the organization describes the site as “the pride of the New York Police Force” and calls it “the show place of the cemetery... indeed, one of the finest burial places in the country.” The June 10, 1917, New York Times published a photo of memorial services there, complete with flag-draped grandstand and a hundred or so well-dressed men and women seated before the monument listening to speeches. Not much was heard about the Police Arlington for 30 years or so. The next recorded mention came in an investigative report submitted on Oct. 19, 1945, by an officer identified only as Sergeant 1182, who was assigned with a patrolman to determine the condition of the grounds and matters relating to the maintenance trust fund at Cypress Hills Cemetery. An excerpt from Sergeant 1182’s report:	“In company of Ptl. Sharnberger, I visited the burial plot. It is located at the Grand Central Parkway side of the cemetery, on a high plot of ground adjoining the National Cemetery. A statue of a policeman stands on a pedestal in the centre of the plot, and a flagpole is also situated there. The condition of the plot is, upon ordinary examination, very bad. The grass is uncut and the trees, which appear to have been hedges at one time, are almost obscuring the statue, which in itself is approximately 30 feet high. Weeds have overgrown the plot, and an uprooted tree lies on the ground with the hole from the displacement of the roots unfilled. In short, the plot seems to have been badly neglected and, in sharp contrast with the surrounding plots, suffers by comparison.” In 1951, the Metro association, which had apparently become dormant, was legally merged into the NYPD Honor Legion, which today is the sole body that can authorize burial there. The May 1955 cover of Spring 3100 featured a photo of a memorial service, with Honor Legion wreaths at the foot of the statue and two uniformed officers saluting while a third played taps. A box on the magazine’s title page called the event an “annual pilgrimage” to pay homage to deceased members of the department. Except for an occasional interment, there is little further record of the Police Arlington until April 12, 1966, when the statue, which weighed nearly a ton, and the plaques were reported stolen. A few years later, the Honor Legion made a good faith effort to raise funds to restore the site to its former glory but ran afoul of the department’s fund-raising regulations and the attempt was abandoned. In 1999, retired Sgt. Bosak, the NYPD’s unofficial historian, and another retired cop named John Reilly tried again without success. Now, an ad-hoc committee of active and retired officers, with the help of Daily News civil service columnist Lisa Colangelo, has renewed public interest in the site’s historical restoration. On May 16 they conducted what is believed to be the first memorial ceremony at the Police Arlington in over half a century. The event was well attended by uniformed officers and NYPD brass, interested retirees and police organization leaders, including PBA President Pat Lynch. The PBA, the NYPD Traffic Squad Benevolent Association, the Brooklyn-Staten Island chapter of the 10-13 clubs, the Long Island Shields and the Police Reserve Association all laid wreaths at the base of the monument where the statue once stood. In the attempt to raise funds to replace the missing bronze artifacts, the ad-hoc committee is in touch with an expert restoration firm and is conducting research to ensure an historically accurate replication. Cypress Hills Cemetery officials have done a remarkable job replacing broken walkways and tending to the grounds and graves of deceased officers. John Desmond, a retired officer who is now the cemetery’s CEO, has strongly supported the restoration effort. Retired court officer Patrick Russo, a family service counselor at the cemetery, has been coordinating all the parties interested in the project and was primarily responsible for the warm welcome given to those who attended the memorial. We all hope that, with the Honor Legion’s blessing, this group of men and women who treasure police officers past and present, will succeed where others haven’t by restoring the Police Arlington to its rightful glory.