Looking for Weekend Activities? Try the Graveyard.
The highest point in Brooklyn is in the Green-Wood Cemetery, which seems, at least to some Brooklynites, a little unfair: all that prime real estate for folks who can’t enjoy it? But the NY Times suggests that cemeteries are enjoyable for the living, too, especially Green-Wood, with its beautiful grounds, not to mention views. “Green-Wood…
The highest point in Brooklyn is in the Green-Wood Cemetery, which seems, at least to some Brooklynites, a little unfair: all that prime real estate for folks who can’t enjoy it? But the NY Times suggests that cemeteries are enjoyable for the living, too, especially Green-Wood, with its beautiful grounds, not to mention views. “Green-Wood Cemetery — an early example of the ‘rural cemetery’ movement imported from Europe — had become one of the country’s premier attractions [in the 1860s], ranking up there with Niagara Falls. Half a million people visited a year, and that’s just counting the live ones.” The cemetery is home to many beautiful sculptures, including the statue of Minerva (for which a troubled condo project is now named). Then there’s the attraction of the famous folk buried there: Jean Michel Basquiat, Leonard Bernstein and “Boss” Tweed among them.
You Can Come and Go. They’re Staying Awhile. [NY Times]
Photo by lostinbrooklyn.
A few weeks ago I was on a trolley tour at the cemetery given by the author of a new book about Green-Wood. The tour was really neat. One of the attractions on the tour was the mausoleum of the guy who invented the hot dog.His name is Charles Feltman. We also saw the ASPCA founders mausoleum which has the figure of a horse in front of it,where Currier and Ives is buried and a huge mausoleum that has heat and electricity.After we all went back to Green-Wood’s chapel -it’s really beautiful-and talked with the author Alex Mosca about what we had seen. There are pictures of all of what we saw in this cool new book, which has lots of old photos of Green-Wood. I bought a few copies for gifts. They are for sale at the cemetery office. If you are Green-Wood fans you will find this book totally interesting.
Cool indeed. One of my favorite places to go to in Brooklyn and walk around, sit by the pond and have lunch.
That is a very cool cemetary. They give tours. My sister went to a great, artsy, spooky one in October. With live music and performance! She raved. I’m going next year if they still do it.
That reminds me! I took a bunch of fall photos there the other day and never put them up.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/greenwood
The guy who invented the hotdog is also buried there.
All hail that guy!!