This parkland draws its name from the nearby Cemetery of the Evergreens, which was founded in 1849. The Cemetery of the Evergreens, located along Bushwick Avenue on the Brooklyn-Queens border, is one of the many cemeteries that sprung up in Queens County in the 19th century.
After a decades-long struggle to eradicate yellow fever from Manhattan, city officials targeted filth and unsanitary burial conditions as the primary cause of disease epidemics. Burials were banned in southern Manhattan in 1830, and many cemeteries were built on Long Island, especially in what is now Queens. Developers believed that this area, with its beautiful rolling hills and woodlands, was more conducive to the peaceful seclusion they sought than the flat ground usually chosen for cemeteries. During the American Revolution these same hills served as the location for a beacon and lookout promontory.