Nadia Chaudhury

New York City has a wealth of secret places and things to do—the odd buildings, underground mysteries and little-known scandals—and now, in time for St. Patrick's Day, we're presenting an in-depth look at one of those secrets: the crypts beneath The Basilica of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral or St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. The cathedral property was originally purchased in 1801 by the trustees of St. Peter’s Church (the first Catholic church in New York) to be used as a cemetery for members of the faith. Thanks to the rapid growth of the city's Catholic population, the trustees decided to construct a cathedral on the land, which was completed in 1815. But by the middle of the 19th century, burials in Manhattan were outlawed for health reasons—they figured corpses weren’t being buried deep enough and were contaminating the groundwater—and, with a few exceptions, no one has been interred on the church's grounds since.  But that doesn't mean St. Pat's hasn't been used for funerals—since the 1820s, many of its members have been buried in the underground crypts, which are enclosed tombs made with brick and cement. Among those buried within are captains of industry, merchants, bankers and lawyers. All of the vaults and coffins are hermetically sealed to avoid decomposition gases entering the cathedral above. Below, check out a photo tour of the crypts and learn some of the spot's spooky secrets. Photograph: Nadia Chaudhury General Thomas Eckert’s family tomb is the first you see w