Green-Wood Cemetery



         



Chapel in Green-Wood

Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, several blocks east of Prospect Park. In the New York Times it was said to be the "ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Central Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-Wood". Inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, overlooking Boston, it was the idea of Henry Pierrepoint. It was a popular tourist attraction in the 1850s and was the place most famous New Yorkers who died during the second half of the nineteenth century were buried. It is still an operating cemetery with approximately 600,000 graves. The rolling hills and dales, several ponds and an on-site chapel provide an environment that still draws visitors. On weekends cars are allowed on cemetery grounds. There are several famous monuments located there, including a statue of DeWitt Clinton and a Civil War Memorial.

Notables buried at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York:

  • Bill Poole - His character was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in the motion picture Gangs of New York
  • Alice Roosevelt (1861 - 1884) - first wife of US President Theodore Roosevelt
  • Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (1834 - 1884) - mother of US President Theodore Roosevelt
  • Robert Roosevelt - uncle of US President Theodore Roosevelt
  • Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. - father of US President Theodore Roosevelt
  • Margaret Sanger (1879 - 1966) - birth control advocate
  • Ira Sankey (1840 - 1908) - hymn composer
  • F.A.O. Schwarz (Frederick Augustus Otto Schwarz) (1836 - 1911) - toy store founder
  • Henry Steinway (1797 - 1871) - founder of Steinway & Sons, piano manufacturers
  • William Steinway (1836 - 1896) - son of Henry Steinway, and founder of Steinway, New York
  • Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 - 1933) - artist
  • William March "Boss" Tweed (1823 - 1878) - notorious New York politician
  • Frank Morgan Wupperman (1890 - 1949) - played the character of the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

  • See also: List of famous cemeteries


    External link





      View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License