[Updated] You and your family can be buried close to your East Village home for $350,000

[EVG photo from Sunday]

So it turns out that the New York Marble Cemetery on Second Avenue between East Second Street and East Third Street has the last two inground burial plots openly available in Manhattan.

And they are for sale — $350,000 each.

New York magazine has the story in its current issue.

The cemetery's monthly Open Days provide one way for cemetery officials to make the pitch to potential vault owners.

Caroline DuBois, president of the board and future occupant of vault No. 54, sat on a bench under two multicolored umbrellas. Brochures and a donation jar sat on a table in front of her. “I think it would be the perfect gift for a hedge-fund billionaire to give his sweetheart,” she said.

And how did they come up with that price?

“When you only have two, why give them away?” asked Robert Breck Denny, a trustee and a likely resident of No. 38, who was sitting near DuBois. To come up with their price, the trustees researched the cost of comparable grave sites — “in San Francisco, in Hong Kong, in Paris” — and “basically, did a market analysis.”

Like nickel beer, the vaults were much less expensive back in the day — $250 when the cemetery opened in 1830.

The cemetery's website has much info on the vaults:

NYMC is offering its two reclaimed and empty family-sized 80 square foot marble vaults for sale for $350,000 each. The requirement for bio-degradable materials ensures that a purchaser’s family can use the space for many generations to come. Interested buyers should contact info@marblecemetery.org for details.

Updated 9:30 a.m.

Gothamist first reported on the two plots at New York Marble Cemetery back in June. Read that piece here.