Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 when this part of Brooklyn was still rural. Brooklyn social leader Henry Evelyn Pierrepoint spearheaded the formation of the cemetery, which was inspired by the naturalistic English landscape of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. The original layout for the cemetery was designed by landscape architect David Bates Douglass. The 478 acres have a varied terrain formed by glacial moraines and feature both the highest point in Brooklyn (Battle Hill) and four glacial kettle ponds. It has been a tourist destination since the mid 19th century and, as of this writing, is the final resting place of around 600,000 persons. The cemetery was designated National Historic Landmark in 2006
If you're into such things, it's a lovely way to spend a summer or autumn afternoon. This was a much coveted final resting spot in the 19th century and is, accordingly, a great historical experience just a subway ride away.
The Gothic Revival main entrance gate building was designed by Richard M. Upjohn and built in 1861 with Bellville brownstone. The gateways feature sculptured groups designed by John M. Moffitt that depict biblical scenes. The center spire is home to a group of monk parakeets that are descended from South American birds that escaped their cages in the 1960s from Idlewild Airport (now JFK) a few miles to the southeast.
10/31/2008 03:34 PM
Bronze bear mounted on the gravestone of <br> William Holbrook Beard - a painter of human-like animals
FindAGrave.com is a a site with information on the final resting places of many famous and not-so-famous persons. People can also request photos of gravesites of their relatives, and the requests are e-mailed to folks who have signed up on the site and are located nearby the cemetery of interest. I received such a request for Green-Wood Cemetery, which lead to a list of around 20 outstanding photo requests, and to my subsequent visits.
Finding gravesites, especially old ones, can be quite a challenge since it is often difficult to get accurate location information for specific gravesites. And even when such information is available, older gravestones are often weathered beyond recognition or missing altogether.
Green-Wood Cemetery provides access to burial database information both through their website and from a kiosk in the Fifth Avenue gate house building. The kiosk computer displays and prints map sections that can lead you to the section and lot for a particular gravesite. However, the lots are rarely clearly deliniated on the ground and since some lots can be quite large and densely populated, the search for a particular grave can take awhile. And there is no assurance that a legible stone still exists for the grave. Marble stones from the late 19th and early 20th century are especially problematic since marble is porus annd almost all of them have weathered beyond recognition (unlike granite stones). They also, tragically, often represent the missing links in folks' genealogical searches.
Below are some case studies on the some gravesite searches I did in Green-Wood Cemetery - some successful, some not.
Angel Ramon Ramirez (1979-2007)
Marine Lance Corporal Angel Ramon Ramirez died in California in 2007 following a non-hostile incident in Al Quaim, Iraq in December, 2006. It was an honor to photograph his grave, but it also made me quite angry that he had to make so great a sacrifice for such a morally ambiguous cause.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Leonard Bernstein was one of the most important figures in American music in the mid 20th century. Aside from a lengthy and illustrious career as an orchestral conductor, he was also a composer of both theatrical and concert pieces, with his score for the musical and movie West Side Story being perhaps his best-loved and remembered work.
John Kennion (1830-1886) / Angeline Pereira (1872-1915)
John Wilberforce Kennion was a wandering soul who was born in England and at various times was a surgeon, newspaperman and street preacher. Fittingly, perhaps, there is no clear marker for his gravesite, whatever stone there was long since lost to the elements. The cemetery database lists him as being buried in section 127, lot 3139, grave 412, although the lots here seem to have been renumbered as the map displays lot 10841. Few graves in this section have legible markers. An arm of Meadow Avenue once ran through this section, but it was being removed to add additional grave plots.
Angeline Lyons Pereira had a somewhat more conventional but brief life, being married at age 16 to Charles Smith and, a year later, to Charles Francis Pereira, ultimately bearing him nine children. Her database listing places her in section 127, lot 17931, but as with John Kennion, the map displays lot 10841. And also as with Mr. Kennion, a fairly thorough search of the lot was unsuccessful in finding any trace of her headstone.
I was not completely certain that I had found the correct lot, but a cemetery security guard volunteered to help with my search and confirmed this was the right place. Tommy was an interesting character - his grandfather had worked in the cemetery and he had just joined the staff a few months before my visit. Health problems derailed a promising baseball career and he found the relative peace of security work as both quieting and stimulating when he had the opportunity to assist visitors in locating graves.
Freda Obenland (1846-1922)
Freda Obenland is listed in the database as being buried in section 136, lot 28070, grave 379. Given the comparatively recent burial, I was hoping that her stone might still be intact but I was not so fortunate. While there were only a few stones weathered to illegibility, there were also a number of stones that were sinking deep into the soft dirt and thick grass. It is possible that if she had an in-ground stone, it had sunk beneath the surface over the years.
Samuel F.B. Morse (1794 - 1871)
Inventor of the first commercially successful telegraph. Lot 5761, section 25.
Fred Ebb (1928 - 2004)
Fred Ebb was a musical theatre lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer John Kander, especially their songs for Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman. They wrote the song "New York, New York" as well as a number of songs that were very important in the careers of Barbara Streisand and Liza Minelli.
Ebb is interred in a mausoleum in Section 20 (lot 43458) on the south edge of Sylvan Water. He shares the mausoleum with Edwin Aldridge (1929-1997) and Martin Cohen (1926-1995). I'm not entirely certain what the relationship between the three was, but Aldridge stage managed a number of Kander/Ebb shows and his obit in the NY Times lists Ebb as his surviving friend.
Florence, Minnie and William Warner
Florence Warner (d. 1900), Minnie Van Loon Warner (d. 1916), and William Warner (d. 1917) are listed in the cemetery database as buried in Lot 21025, Section 3. This is a fairly large and old lot with numerous unreadable headstones and I was unable to find a specific grave site for them.
William Turner (1856-1904)
William C. Turner is listed in the cemetery database as buried in lot 20118, section 6. As with the Warners, this is a large, old lot with numerous unreadable headstones and I was unable to find a specific grave site for him.
Henry Englehard Steinway (1797-1871)
Henry Steinway was the founder of the famed Steinway and Sons Piano Company. He is interred with numerous other members of his family in this mausoleum on Lot 15388, Section 46.
William "Boss" Tweed (1823-1873)
Boss Tweed was the force behind the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine that dominated NYC politics in the late 19th century. Tweed and numerous members of his family are interred in this plot on Lot 6447, Section 55.
James and Susan Cook
James Cook (1789-1868) and Susan Caroline Cook (1803-1884) got married in 1826 and made their home in New York City, where James was a grocer. They are buried in lot 5039, section 48.
Thomas Michael Walsh (1963-2008)
Although he is listed in the "Vista" section (aka section 71) lot 44605, there was no gravestone with his name. However, there was a Walsh stone with recently disturbed dirt in front of it, so presumably that is a family burial location and Thomas' name hasn't yet been added to the stone.
William C. Lash (1872-1904)
William C. Lash and his wife Annie lived in Brooklyn and had six children. He is buried in lot 17245, section 17. This is an extremely large lot on the southwest corner of the cemetery with numerous unreadable stones and I was unable to find a specific gravesite for him.
Mary G. Kennion (1881-1958)
The gravesite of Mary Kennion is a bit of a mystery. She was buried in 1958, limiting the potential that her headstone would be missing or illegible. Her database entry lists her in section 124, lot 35899, grave FRC. That lot is right behind the oft-photographed Van Ness - Parsons pyramid mausoleum. However, the gravestone in that lot is for the Pakenham family, including a daughter, Hannah, who was interred in 1950. There is no physical indication that Mary Kennion or her husband Charles (d. 1956) are buried here.
Clement Harron (1844-1915)
Clement Harron is listed in the database as being buried in section 93, lot 2235, although the displayed map places him in lot 1014. There is one headstone in that lot, although it appears to be older than 1915 and what few legible characters are on the stone do not appear to spell out Clement or Harron. So, I can't be entirely certain whether or not this is the correct grave location.
Pauline Huber Hess (1842-1909)
Pauline Huber Hess is listed in the database as being buried in Section D, Lot 18513, Grave 4. That is a narrow, old lot with numerous missing and unreadable stones. While I was unable to locate a stone for Pauline, I was able to locate stones for Henry and Georg Hess, so presumably this was a family plot.
William Haveron (1851-1907)
William Haveron was a shipping agent. He is interred in Section 117, Lot 10975, Grave 978.
The cemetery database lists Louise Haveron (1857-1879) as being buried in section 86, lot 18066. One of her relatives said someone else had unsuccessfully looked for the grave and asked if I would give it a spin. The grave supposedly contains four persons, Louise, her parents John and Eliza, and a Mary E. McLaughlin. Although this is a fairly old section of the cemetery, thankfully, the lot was fairly small, saving me the hours of futile looking that are typical when a grave that old is in a large, indistinct lot. Lot 18066 is just to the west of lot 1898, which has a marker. A fairly recent grave for Frederic and Helen (1919-2004) Price is listed in the database indicating that this is definitely lot 18066 and that the Haverons do not have an extant grave marker of any kind. Surrounding graves for G.P Merkel (d. 1871 - lot 1597?), Daniel W. Teller (lot 17340?) and (unknown) Mackenzie are not in the database, indicating that the database seems to be missing a significant number of older graves.
12/18/2008 03:57 PM
Lot 1898 marker (just to the east of lot 18066) with Price gravestone in slot 18066
Eliza White England (1813-1888)
Eliza White England is buried in section A, lot 9146, grave 478. This was another old, poorly marked section of the cemetery like section 127 and I was concerned that I would likewise be unsuccessful in finding the grave. However, the headstone was granite, helping it survive the elements intact and legible.