Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, internationally-acclaimed composer, died on Christmas Eve, 2012. His remains will be interred at Green-Wood. It turns out that Sir Richard and Sir Paul–Paul McCartney, that is–were good friends. Here is Paul’s website, as it appears today, January 10, 2013: And, also on that home page, “A personal message from Paul on … Read more
Green-Wood just has been awarded a grant of $500,000 by New York State’s Regional Economic Development Council to begin work on the restoration of the landmarked Weir Greenhouse, at Green-Wood’s main entrance, the corner of 25th Street and Fifth Avenue. The greenhouse, in disrepair, was purchased by Green-Wood in February, 2012, for use as a … Read more
Sue and Ed Ramsey were both fighting bad colds on the last day of 2012–“sick as dogs”– just a few days ago. So they decided that there would be no New Year’s Eve party that night for them–just a quiet night at home. Sue, who has been a researcher for Green-Wood’s Civil War Project for … Read more
On April 18 of this year, The Green-Wood Cemetery will celebrate the 175th anniversary of its founding. In honor of this historic anniversary, we will be celebrating in many ways, including a gallery exhibition devoted to Green-Wood, “A Beautiful Way To Go,”opening at the Museum of the City of New York in May. We also … Read more
Winter starts tomorrow. But perhaps our Bearded Irises haven’t gotten the memo. An iris variety called “Feed Back,” they are out there, to the right of Green-Wood’s main entrance gate as you enter, still blooming away. These are rebloomers–their show in the spring is a bit less than most irises–but they rebloom in the fall–and … Read more
After much effort, and some controversy, Civic Virtue, Frederick MacMonnies’s sculpture from the 1920s, has arrived, and been installed, at Green-Wood. It was a long journey. Civic Virtue was carved in marble in the Bronx. It was then installed in City Hall Park in Manhattan. Soon it was exiled to Queens, where, exposed to the … Read more
Since Hurricane Sandy hit, Green-Wood’s grounds crew has been working overtime to fix the place up: first the roads were cleared, then it was time to cut up the destroyed trees and repair the broken monuments. But there is a tremendous amount of work still to be done; the clean-up is not expected to be … Read more
As I reported in “Sandy Hammers Green-Wood,”our recent hurricane visitor was not kind to Green-Wood’s grounds. Approximately 300 mature trees–oaks, maples, beeches, and more, were toppled or snapped off. And, those tons of wood landed on more than 200 monuments, shattering angels and gravestones. But it was not all a loss. In fact, it was … Read more
A century ago, George Wesley Bellows (1882-1925) was one of America’s leading artists. He had risen quickly–from star baseball player and illustrator of the student yearbook at Ohio State University to “the apotheosis of the 100 per cent American artist.” Without waiting to graduate from OSU, Bellows set out for New York City and fell … Read more
On October 13 we unveiled “The Angel of Music,” a bronze sculpture, at the grave of Louis Moreau Gottschalk (, America’s first international musical superstar. The blog post about that event, “Welcome, Angel of Music,” is here. Last week, on NPR’s “On Point,” Tom Ashbrook devoted his show to Gottschalk. His guests were Richard Rosenberg, … Read more