Free Again
Green-Wood is many things: park, sculpture garden, arboretum, and wildlife preserve, to name a few. We recently added another bird to our population…
Restoration & Beautification
Going Back To Our Roots
It is never easy to kill a tree. But sometimes it is a good idea. For several months now, I’ve been working with Elizabeth Christian, our intern extraordinaire, on Then and Now photographs of Green-Wood. We thought it would be interesting to gather historic 19th century images of the cemetery, then go out and take … Read more
Raising the Roofs
The back entrance to Green-Wood, on Fort Hamilton Parkway, just doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Admittedly, it is not a spectacular as the brownstone Arches at the main entrance to Green-Wood, Fifth Avenue and 25th Street, described by Robert A. M. Stern, dean of Yale’s School of Architecture, as the finest example of High Victorian design in America.
Long May She Wave!
Just a few weeks ago I led a tour of Green-Wood Cemetery for the Woodhaven Historical Society. At one of the stops on the tour, a very nice woman asked me if I knew of a monument at Green-Wood that had a flag pole. I mentioned the monument to Samuel Chester Reid, War of 1812 … Read more
Green-Wood Gates
I was cruising around the cemetery yesterday, leading a tour on our trolley, when we came across this scene. There were Domenick Lanzi, our master ironworker, and his assistant, Vincent Joseph, installing my cast iron gate. Now, it really isn’t mine, at least not anymore. I bought it about five years ago at an antiques … Read more
Where Have You Gone, Gottschalk’s Fallen Angel?
It has been a mystery we’ve been trying to solve for some time now. We knew that the grave of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, America’s first internationally-acclaimed classical composer and pianist, had been adorned, soon after his death, with a marble angel. We had photographs of it–from the 19th century, even from as late as 1930 … Read more
It Isn’t Pretty
I thought the snow storm we had a few weeks ago was pretty severe. With all that wet snow, many wonderful trees lost limbs. Discussing that storm with our Superintendent of the Grounds, Art Presson, a few days after it struck, we marveled at the fact that all of the falling limbs then had somehow … Read more
Winter Not-So-Wonderland
Well, I guess Nature giveth and Nature taketh away. We do have a great collection of trees at Green-Wood Cemetery–an expert from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens recently described our trees as the best collection of mature trees in New York City. We have about 7,000 trees–some just getting started, some more than a century old. … Read more
No Longer Headless
This angel, in front of a tomb near Fort Hamilton Parkway, recently lost its head. Fortunately, Frank Morelli, our supervisor in charge of the Green-Wood Restoration Program, found it in a nearby urn. And its now back in place. Below are photos of it clamped, waiting for the adhesive to set, as well as with … Read more
Back On Top
Art Presson, Green-Wood Cemetery’s superintendent of the grounds, is a jack of all trades. Trained as a horiculturist, he designs gardens and plantings. He is in charge of the grounds crew, figuring out what has to be done and assigning workers to do it. He is responsible for selecting sites for new trees and determining … Read more