Remembrance and Celebration: Memorial Day in Brooklyn

While Memorial Day for many is a way to kick off the summer season, it’s also meant to be a day of remembrance. With its origins as Decoration Day following the Civil War, it’s long been a chance to remember and honor soldiers who have died in war.

Brooklyn has a rich history related to Memorial Day and we’ve gathered a few of our stories about it below.

What today is known as Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day. In 1868, General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union Army’s Veteran’s Association, instituted the first Decoration Day, calling for it to be celebrated in cities and towns across the country. May 30 was chosen at random, coinciding with the optimal time of year for flowers to be in bloom.

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On Memorial Day, 1897, a Tally-Ho Ride from Stuyvesant Heights to Long Island Went Horribly Wrong
On Memorial Day 1897, a group of young adults from Stuyvesant Heights’ Green Avenue Baptist Church was involved in a horrible collision between an open horse-drawn coach and a Long Island Railroad train. The crash took place on May 31, 1897.

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Brooklyn’s War Memorial

This huge monument honors Brooklyn’s war dead from World War II, and is a somber reminder of the sacrifices ordinary people have made for our country. Unfortunately, for something as large as it is, this is the most lost memorial in Brooklyn.

Related Stories

• Visiting Brooklyn’s Revolutionary War Sites: Old Stone House, Fort Greene Park, and More
• Restored Saratoga Park War Memorial Unveiled
• Death and the Green-Wood

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