Green-Wood Cemetery

“Green-Wood” redirects here. For other uses, see Greenwood (disambiguation).

Green-Wood Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NYC Landmark
Richard M. Upjohn's Gothic revival northern entrance to the cemetery, built in 1861-65, has been a New York City landmark since 1966. (2015)
Location:	Brooklyn, New York City
Coordinates:	40°39′08″N 73°59′28″W
Area:	478 acres (1.9 km2)
Built:	1838
Architect:	Cemetery: David Bates Douglass Gates: Richard M. Upjohn Chapel: Warren & Wetmore Weir Greenhouse: G. Curtis Gillespie
NRHP Reference#:	97000228
Significant dates
Added to NRHP:	March 8, 1997
Designated NHL:	September 20, 2006
Designated NYCL:	Gates: April 19, 1966 Weir Greenhouse: April 13, 1982 Fort Hamilton Parkway Gate & Green-Wood Cemetery Chapel: April 12, 2016

Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York. Like other early rural cemeteries, Green-Wood was founded in a time of rapid urbanization when churchyards in New York City were becoming overcrowded.

Located in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, the cemetery lies several blocks southwest of Prospect Park, between Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park. The architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times that "it is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-wood".

The gates of the cemetery were designated a New York City landmark in 1966, and the Weir Greenhouse, used as a visitor's center, in 1982. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Fort Hamilton Parkway Gate and the cemetery's chapel were designated as landmarks by New York City in 2016.

"Brooklyn's first public park by default long before Prospect Park was created", the popularity of Green-Wood Cemetery inspired a competition to design a "Central Park" for NYC. It essentially inspired the creation of Central Park and Prospect Park.

History

Green-Wood Chapel, built in 1911 and designed by Warren and Wetmore was designated a NYC Landmark in 2016.

Less inspired by Pére Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, which at the time retained the primarily axial formality of Alexandre Théodore Brongniart's original design, than by recently opened Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a cemetery in a naturalistic park-like landscape in the English manner was first established, Green-Wood was able to take advantage of the varied topography provided by glacial moraines. Battle Hill, the highest point in Brooklyn, is on cemetery grounds, rising approximately 200 feet above sea level. It was the site of an important action during the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. A Revolutionary War monument by Frederick Ruckstull, Altar to Liberty: Minerva, was erected there in 1920. From this height, the bronze Minerva statue gazes towards the Statue of Liberty across New York Harbor.

The cemetery was the idea of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont, a Brooklyn social leader. The Pierrepont papers deposited at the Brooklyn Historical Society contain material about the organizing of Green-Wood Cemetery. It was a popular tourist destination in the 1850s, and by the early 1860s it was drawing annual crowds second in size only to Niagara Falls. Most famous New Yorkers who died during the second half of the nineteenth century were buried there. Green-Wood Cemetery is still operating with approximately 600,000 graves and 7000 trees spread out over 478 acres (1.9 km²). The rolling hills and dales, several ponds and an on-site chapel provide an environment that still draws visitors. In 2017 it received 280,000 visitors.

There are several famous monuments located there, including a statue of DeWitt Clinton, and a memorial erected by James Brown, president of Brown Brothers bank and the Collins Line, to the six members of his family lost in the SS Arctic disaster of 1854. This incorporates a sculpture of the ship, half-submerged by the waves, as well as a Civil War Memorial. During the Civil War, Green-Wood Cemetery created the "Soldiers' Lot" for free veterans' burials.

The gates were designed by Richard Upjohn in Gothic Revival style. The main entrance to the cemetery was built in 1861-65 of Belleville, New Jersey brownstone. The sculptured groups on Nova Scotia limestone panels depicting biblical scenes of death and resurrection from the New Testament including Lazarus, The Widow's Son, and Jesus' Resurrection over the gateways are the work of sculptor John M. Moffitt. A Designated Landmarks of New York plaque was erected on it in 1958 by the New York Community Trust, and it was designated an official New York City landmark in 1966.

"Weep Not", one of John Moffitt's sculpted panels from the entrance gate

Several wooden shelters were also built, including one in a Gothic Revival style, one resembling an Italian villa, and another resembling a Swiss chalet. A descendent colony of monk parakeets that are believed to have escaped their containers while in transit now nests in the spires of the gate, as well as other areas in Brooklyn.

On December 5, 1876, the Brooklyn Theater Fire claimed the lives of at least 278 individuals, with some accounts reporting over 300 dead. Out of that total, 103 unidentified victims were interred in a common grave at Green-Wood Cemetery. An obelisk near the main entrance at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street marks the burial site. More than two dozen identified victims were interred individually in separate sections at the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn. Also buried at the cemetery are 6 British Commonwealth service personnel whose graves are registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 3 from World War I and 3 from World War II, among the latter being Leading Aircraftsman Remsen Taylor Williams (died 1941 aged 26), Royal Canadian Air Force, who is buried in the Steinway Vault.

Green-Wood has remained non-sectarian, but was generally considered a Christian burial place for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of good repute. One early regulation was that no one executed for a crime, or even dying in jail, could be buried there. Although he died in the Ludlow Street Jail, the family of the infamous "Boss" Tweed managed to circumvent this rule. The cemetery's chapel was completed in 1911. It was designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, who also designed Grand Central Terminal, the Commodore Hotel, the Yale Club and many other buildings. The chapel is a reduced version of the upper sections of Christopher Wren's Tom Tower at Christ Church College in Oxford; it was restored in 2001.

In 1999, The Green-Wood Historic Fund, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institution, was created to continue preservation, beautification, educational programs and community outreach as the current "working cemetery" evolves into a Brooklyn cultural institution.

There was vandalism on August 21, 2012, one of the worst cases encountered in Green-Wood. Individual(s) was said to have jumped the fence and damaged about 50 monuments and memorials.

On October 13, 2012, another Angel of Music, to replace the one vandalized in 1959, this one made by sculptors Giancarlo Biagi and Jill Burkee, was unveiled to memorialize Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy toppled or damaged at least 292 of the mature trees, 210 gravestones, and 2 mausoleums in the cemetery. The damage was estimated at $500,000.

In December 2012 the controversial and much traveled statue "The Triumph of Civic Virtue" by Frederick MacMonnies was moved to Green-Wood.

In August 2013, in partnership with the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati, signage in the Battle Hill area of the cemetery was updated to reflect new research on Battle Hill's importance in the Battle of Brooklyn.

The Historic Fund's Civil War Project

The Historic Fund's Civil War Project, an effort to identify and remember Civil War veterans buried at Green-Wood, was born of the enthusiasm felt at the rededication ceremony of Civil War Soldiers' Monument. These early graves have either sunk into the soil, been damaged, or have their markers erased.

Notable burials

• Samuel Akerly (1785–1845), founder of the New York Institute for the Blind
• Augustus Chapman Allen (1806–1864), co-founder of the City of Houston
• Harvey A. Allen (1818?–1882), United States Army officer, was Commander of the Department of Alaska 1871–1873
• Albert Anastasia (1903–1957), mobster and contract killer for Murder, Inc.
• Othniel Boaz Askew (1972–2003; cremated), politician and assassin of New York City Council member James E. Davis, whose remains were relocated to another cemetery
• James Bard (1815–1897), marine artist, buried in unmarked grave
• Peter Townsend Barlow (1857–1921), New York City Magistrate
• Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), artist
• William Holbrook Beard (1824–1900), painter of Bulls and Bears representing the market cycle; a bear statue sits on top of his headstone
• Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887), abolitionist
• George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925), painter
• James Gordon Bennett, Sr. (1795–1872), founder/publisher of the New York Herald
• Richard Rodney Bennett (1936–2012; cremated), composer of film, TV and concert music
• Henry Bergh (1818–1888), founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
• Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), pianist, composer, and conductor; alongside his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre (1922-1978)
• Jane Augusta Blankman (1823–1860), courtesan
• Samuel Blatchford (1820–1893), U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Stanley Bosworth (1927-2011), Founding headmaster of prestigious Saint Ann's School
• Andrew Bryson (1822–1892), United States Navy rear admiral
• Charlotte Canda, a debutante killed in a carriage accident on her 17th birthday
• Elliott Carter (1908–2012), composer
• Alice Cary (1820–1871), poet, author
• Phoebe Cary (1824–1871), poet, author
• George Catlin (1796–1872), painter of Native Americans in the Old West
• Henry Chadwick (1824–1908), Baseball Hall of Fame member (memorial)
• William Merritt Chase (1849–1916), painter, teacher
• Kate Claxton (1850–1924), American theatre actress noted for her role of Louise in the play The Two Orphans
• DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828), unsuccessful U.S. presidential candidate 1812; U.S. Senator from New York; seventh and ninth Governor of New York
• William J. Coombs (1833–1922), U.S. Congressman from Brooklyn
• George H. Cooper (1821–1891), United States Navy rear admiral
• Peter Cooper (1791–1883), inventor, manufacturer, abolitionist, founder of Cooper Union
• James Creighton, Jr. (1841–1862), first pitcher to throw a fastball
• Edwin Pearce Christy (1815–1862), minstrel, known for performing the Stephen Foster song "Old Folks at Home" (aka "Swanee River")
• George Washington Cullum (1809–1892), Superintendent of the United States Military Academy
• Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), artist ("Currier and Ives")
• Duncan Curry (1812–1894), baseball pioneer and insurance executive
• Elizabeth Cushier (1837–1931), professor of medicine and for 25 years before her retirement in 1900, one of New York's most prominent obstetricians
• Bronson M. Cutting (1888–1935), United States Senator from New Mexico (1927–1928; 1929–1935)
• Marcus Daly (1841–1900), Irish-born copper industrialist in Montana
• James E. Davis (1962–2003), assassinated City Councilman, was buried here for a few days; upon learning his killer's ashes were also in Green-Wood, his family had his body exhumed and reinterred in the Cemetery of the Evergreens
• Charles Schuyler De Bost (1826–1895), baseball pioneer
• Richard Delafield (1798–1873), Chief of Engineers and Superintendent of West Point
• Francis E. Dorn (1911–1987), U.S. Naval Commander, attorney and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 12th congressional district
• Mabel Smith Douglass (1874–1933), founder and first dean of the New Jersey College for Women
• Thomas Clark Durant (1820–1885), key figure in building the First Transcontinental Railroad
• William West Durant (1850–1934), son of Thomas Clark Durant and designer and developer of camps in the Adirondack Great Camp style
• James Durno (1795–1873), husband of labor activist Sarah Bagley (1806–1883)
• Fred Ebb (1928–2004), lyricist
• Charles Ebbets (1859–1925), baseball team (Brooklyn Dodgers) owner; built Ebbets Field
• Elizabeth F. Ellet (1818–1877), American writer and poet
• George Edwin Ewing (1828–1884), Scottish sculptor
• Georgia Engelhard (1906-1985), mountaineer in the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirk ranges. Niece of Alfred Stieglitz and his wife, Georgia O’Keefe.
• Charles Feltman (1841–1910), claimed to be the first person to put a hot dog on a bun
• Edward Ferrero (1831–1899), American Civil War General at the Battle of the Crater and in the Appomattox Campaign
• Edwin Forbes (1839–1895), American Civil War and postbellum artist, illustrator, and etcher
• Isaac Kaufmann Funk (1839–1912), American editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reformer
• Joey Gallo (1929–1972), mobster
• William Delbert Gann (1878-1955), Stock Market author and visionary
• Asa Bird Gardiner (1839–1919), controversial soldier, attorney, and prosecutor
• Robert Selden Garnett (1819–1861), brigadier general of the Confederate States Army and the first general killed in the American Civil War
• Henry George (1839–1897), writer, politician and economist
• Henry George, Jr. (1862–1916), United States Representative from New York
• Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869), composer
• John Franklin Gray (1804–1882), the first practitioner of Homeopathy in the United States
• Horace Greeley (1811–1872), unsuccessful U.S. presidential candidate 1872; founder of the New York Tribune
• Robert Stockton Green (1831–1895), Governor of New Jersey
• Rufus Wilmot Griswold (1815–1857), literary critic
• Edward Wheeler Hall (1881–1922), one of the victims of the Hall–Mills murder case
• Frances Noel Stevens Hall (1874–1942), wife of Edward and suspect in the Hall–Mills murder
• Paul Hall (1914–1980), labor leader
• Henry Wager Halleck (1815–1872), U.S. Army Commander during the middle part of the American Civil War
• William Stewart Halsted (1852–1922), pioneer in American medicine and surgery, often credited as the "Father of Modern American Surgery"
• Jeremiah Hamilton (1806/1807–1875), "the only black millionaire in New York" around the time of the American Civil War
• John Hardy (1835–1913), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York
• Townsend Harris (1804–1878), first U.S. Consul General to Japan
• Nathaniel H. Harris (1834–1900), Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War
• William S. Hart (1864–1946), star of silent "Western" movies
• John A. Hartwell (1861–1940), noted athlete, philanthropist, pioneer in American surgery, and personal physician of Theodore Roosevelt
• Thomas Hastings (1784–1872), wrote the music to the hymn "Rock of Ages"
• Genevieve Hecker (1883–1960), champion golfer
• Joseph Henderson (1826–1890), notable harbor pilot
• Philip A. Herfort (1851–1921), violinist and orchestra leader
• Abram S. Hewitt (1822–1903), Teacher, lawyer, iron manufacturer, U.S. Congressman, and a mayor of New York; son-in-law of Peter Cooper
• Henry B. Hidden (c. 1839–1862), American Civil War cavalry officer
• Grace Webster Haddock Hinsdale (1832—1902), author
• DeWolf Hopper (1858–1935), actor
• Elias Howe (1819–1867), invented the sewing machine (see Walter Hunt)
• James Howell (1829–1897), 19th mayor of Brooklyn
• Walter Hunt (1785–1869), invented the safety pin
• Richard Isay (1934–2012), psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author, gay activist
• James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), artist ("Currier and Ives")
• Paul Jabara (1948–1992), actor, singer and songwriter
• Leonard Jerome (1817–1891), entrepreneur, grandfather of Winston Churchill
• Eastman Johnson (1824–1906), American painter, and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Author of "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
• Tom L. Johnson (1854–1911), former mayor of Cleveland, Ohio
• Willard F. Jones (1890-1967), naval architect, head of National Safety Council's marine section and Vice President of Gulf Oil
• Laura Keene (1826–1873), actress who was on stage when Lincoln was shot
• Florence La Badie (1888–1917), actress
• John La Farge (1835–1910), artist
• Laura Jean Libbey (1862–1924), popular "dime-store" novelist
• Brockholst Livingston (1757–1823), U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• William Livingston (1723–1790), signer of the U.S. Constitution; first Governor of New Jersey
• William Lewis Lockwood (1836–1867), one of the founders of the Sigma Chi Fraternity
• Pierre Lorillard IV (1833–1901), tobacco tycoon, introduced the tuxedo to the U.S.
• John W. Mackay (1831-1902), millionaire, one of the Bonanza Kings of Virginia City, NV and the Comstock Lode
• James Maury (consul) (1746–1840), first U.S. consul to Liverpool, England
• Ormsby M. Mitchel (1805–1862), American astronomer and major general in the American Civil War
• Henry James Montague (1840–1878), stage actor
• Lola Montez (1821–1861), actress and mistress of many notable men among them King Ludwig I of Bavaria
• Charles Morgan (1795–1878), shipping magnate
• Frank Morgan (1890–1949), actor (The Wizard of Oz)
• Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872), invented Morse code, language of the telegraph
• William Niblo (1790–1878), also known as Billy Niblo, the owner of Niblo's Garden
• Violet Oakley (1874–1961), artist
• James Kirke Paulding (1779–1860), U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Martin Van Buren; thought to be "author" of "Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers"
• Mary Ellis Peltz (1896–1981), American drama and music critic, magazine editor, poet and writer on music.
• Anson Greene Phelps (1781–1853), founder of Phelps, Dodge mining and copper company
• Duncan Phyfe (1768–1854), cabinetmaker
• Hezekiah Pierrepont (1768–1838) merchant and founder of Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
• William "Bill The Butcher" Poole (1821–1855), a member of the Bowery Boys gang and the Know Nothing political party; also a bare-knuckle boxer
• Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820–1869), American journalist and politician and founder of The New York Times
• Samuel C. Reid (1783–1861), suggested the design upon which all U.S. flags since 1818 have been based
• Alice Roosevelt (1861–1884), first wife of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
• Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (1834–1884), mother of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
• Robert Roosevelt (1829–1906), uncle of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831–1878), father of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
• Henry Rutgers (1745–1830), Revolutionary War hero, philanthropist, namesake of Rutgers University
• William Cary Sanger (1853–1921), United States Assistant Secretary of War from 1901 to 1903
• Ira Sankey (1840–1908), hymn composer
• Frederick August Otto Schwarz (1836–1911), founder of specialty toy retailer FAO Schwarz
• Peter Sharpe (1777-1842), American politician, served as a United States Representative from New York
• Eli Siegel (1902–1978), poet, educator, founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism
• J. Marion Sims (1813–1883), physician called "founder of modern gynecology".
• John D. Sloat (1781–1867), United States Navy commodore, claimed California for the U.S.
• Henry Warner Slocum (1827–1894), Union general in the American Civil War, U.S. Representative from New York
• Ole Singstad (1882–1969), Norwegian-American civil engineer, designed Lincoln Tunnel and others
• Francis Barretto Spinola (1821–1891), first Italian-American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
• Emma Stebbins (1815–1882), artist, sculptor of Bethesda Fountain
• George Steers (1819-1856), designer of the Yacht America, winner of the first America's Cup.
• Henry Steinway (1797–1871), founder of Steinway & Sons, piano manufacturers
• William Steinway (1836–1896), son of Henry Steinway, and founder of Steinway, New York
• John Austin Stevens Jr. (1827–1910), founder of Sons of the Revolution
• Susan McKinney Steward (1847–1918), one of the first black women to earn a medical degree, and the first in the state of New York
• Clara Harrison Stranahan (1831–1905), author; founder and trustee of Barnard College
• James S. T. Stranahan (1808–1898), "Father of Prospect Park", instrumental promoter of the park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the consolidation of Brooklyn into Greater New York
• Francis Scott Street (1831–1883), co-owner of Street & Smith publishers
• Silas Stringham (1798–1876), long-serving United States Navy officer during the American Civil War and War of 1812
• George Crockett Strong (1832–1863), Union brigadier general in the American Civil War
• Thomas William "Fightin' Tom" Sweeny (1820–1892), Irish immigrant and American Civil War general
• Richard Termini Sr. (1929–1982), father of musician Richard Termini
• John Thomas (1805–1871), founder of The Christadelphians
• Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933), artist
• Alfred Toftenes (1881–1918), Norwegian Chief Officer blamed for the collision that sank the Empress of Ireland
• Matilda Tone (or Mathilda) (1769–1849), widow of Irish rebel Wolfe Tone
• George Francis Train (1829–1904), railroad promoter
• Juan Trippe (1899–1981), airline pioneer, headed Pan Am from 1927 to 1968
• Robert Troup (1756–1832), Revolutionary War hero, New York State assemblyman and Judge; body moved to Green-Wood in 1872
• William Magear "Boss" Tweed (1823–1878), notorious New York political boss, member of the U.S. House of Representatives and New York State Senate
• Camilla Urso (Camille Urso) (1842–1902), French violinist
• Steven C. Vincent (1955–2005), American journalist and author kidnapped and murdered in Iraq in August 2005
• Leopold von Gilsa (1824–1870), American Civil War colonel and brigade commander
• Charles S. Wainwright (1826–1907), American Civil War colonel and artillery officer
• Hugo Wesendonck (1817–1900), founder of the Germania Life Insurance Company, now The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
• Henry John Whitehouse (1803–1874), Episcopal bishop
• Thomas R. Whitney (1807–1858), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York
• Barney Williams (1824–1876), Irish-American actor-comedian
• Beekman Winthrop (1874–1940), governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907, and later an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
• Jonathan Young (1826–1885), United States Navy commodore

Gallery

Monument to Miss Charlotte Canda, Battle Avenue by E. & H. T. Anthony

Vista from the Hillside Mausoleum

A few of the many mausoleums at Green-Wood

Sylvan Water, a decorative pond

Annual Battle of Long Island commemoration inside the main Gothic Arch entrance in Green-Wood Cemetery

Mount Greenwood, Brooklyn, c. 1872–1887, by George Bradford Brainerd

Richard Upjohn's memorial to Hezekiah Pierrepont and his family was built c. 1840s and sits on one of the few man-made hillocks in the cemetery

European beech tree and mausoleums

Largest tulip tree in the cemetery

Large ginkgo tree

Camperdown elm tree

Two old sassafras trees

Koi pond in the Tranquility Garden section of the cemetery

In popular culture

• In the season 2 episode of Daredevil "Penny and Dime," the cemetery is where Matt Murdock brings a wounded Frank Castle after rescuing him from the Kitchen Irish. Matt is later shown standing on top of the entrance archway while the police are arresting Frank.
• In season 1 of Iron Fist, the cemetery is the location of a memorial to Danny Rand and his family.

See also

• List of cemeteries in New York
• List of mausoleums
• List of New York City Landmarks
• List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Kings County, New York

References

Notes

Further reading

• Cleveland, Jehemiah (1866). Green-Wood Cemetery: A History from 1838 to 1864. Anderson and Archer. 
• Killgannon, Corey (January 30, 2006). "The Ones Who Prepare the Ground for the Last Farewell". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/30/nyregion/30gravediggers.html. 
• Bergman, Edward F. (1995). "Green-Wood Cemetery". In Jackson, Kenneth T.. The Encyclopedia of New York City. pp. 509–510. ISBN 0300055366. 
• Richman, Jeffrey I. (1998). Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery: New York's Buried Treasure. 
• Richman, Jeffrey I. (2007). Final Camping Ground: Civil War Veterans at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, In Their Own Words. ISBN 0966343530. 
• Mosca, Alexandra Kathryn (2008). Green-Wood Cemetery. Images of America: New York. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Green-Wood Cemetery

• Official website
• More names of buried persons
• Pictures of Green-Wood
• Seasonal and special event pictures of Green-Wood
• Seeking Room for New Graves at Green-Wood, The New York Times
• Video tour of the catacombs and crypts of Green-Wood Cemetery

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