Green Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn: A Picture Thread

http://i.imgur.com/fsElfR3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pJY9ME5.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Poole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oro4ph7yTmc

http://i.imgur.com/7Ucfhm7.jpg

a child's size throne, next to a baby's grave with a single shoe sitting on the seat
http://i.imgur.com/hCGUyas.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Jttq6Br.jpg

good ol' dime titty mary
http://i.imgur.com/tOxwCGB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/commB4c.jpg

Packard, Silas Sadler (28 April 1826–27 October 1898), pioneer business educator, was born in Cummington, Massachusetts, the son of Chester Packard, a mill operator and mechanic, and Eunice Sadler. The family had resided in Massachusetts since the first Packard settled in Hingham in 1638. Chester Packard succumbed to the “Ohio Fever” in 1833, and the family moved to the vicinity of Fredonia, in Licking County, Ohio. After a number of irregular terms in district schools, Packard had a year of secondary school at the Granville Academy. That concluded his formal education. He began teaching at seventeen, as a writing master in Eden, Ohio, after learning the craft from an itinerant instructor of penmanship. While teaching at a district school in Delaware County, Ohio, the following year, he learned the art of portrait painting in just three weeks of lessons from a traveling artist. In the fall of 1845 he crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky, where, for the next two and a half years, he taught school and painted portraits. Packard apparently thought his paintings lacked artistic merit for, many years later, he dryly remarked that “the houses that harbor them are absolutely free from rats.”...

One of the few mausoleums out there that has been allowed to fall into a kind of disrepair. The glass in the left-hand door has fallen out and the ivy has entered uninvited.
http://i.imgur.com/FUVkZcW.jpg

My favorite name on this day out: "Matilda Tomes Stoutenburgh"
http://i.imgur.com/JgeePze.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CHa76Ca.jpg
https://www.nytimes.com/1862/06/28/archives/the-battle-near-charleston-list-of-killed-wounded-and-missing-of.html

i dearly love constant and try to visit her every time i go
http://i.imgur.com/VAfHTDi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8h1jgFe.jpg
a paper wasp nest wedged in the bars protecting stained glass on the outside of a tomb. "Hymenopotera" indeed.

http://i.imgur.com/fXsPJQ7.jpg
From my May 2 trip.

http://i.imgur.com/iK9QGG2.jpg
my first cemetery dick pic

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This was one of a bunch of stones around a family plot with an Italian last name... perhaps this was/is colloquial for "little one"?

http://i.imgur.com/7j2f8DT.jpg
With COVID going on, the cemetery has seen an influx of people who are not used to the basic rules of the space and who do some exceptionally disrespectful stuff. This (amazingly incorrect) arithmetic pencilled onto a zinc grave marker is an unpleasant example.

http://i.imgur.com/1eILViy.jpg
Outrageous interlocking typography.

http://i.imgur.com/LGt1BWF.jpg
"mon epoux regrette" = "my late husband"
the handshake symbol is a mark of The International Order of Odd Fellows: https://blog.billiongraves.com/club-society-and-fraternity-gravestone-symbols-part-2/

http://i.imgur.com/xC5BLAr.jpg
Fisher Howe, Eliza's husband, appears to have been an author of some works on the Eastern world:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Oriental_and_Sacred_Scenes/xZNCAAAAcAAJ
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_True_Site_of_Calvary_and_Suggestions/d-x7IqdGHTQC

http://i.imgur.com/4WnZFlP.jpg
The Howe family's stones appear to be made of slate and are beautifully carved. They look virtually brand-new some 140 years later with utterly outrageous detail work. This piece stands about three feet tall.

http://i.imgur.com/OZlj3uD.jpg
This Confederate grave (a rarity amongst NY graves) houses the first General officer killed in the Civil War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Garnett
This is obviously not the original marker. In 2007, Green-Wood had 1300 fresh stones put in for veteran servicemen as part of their Civil War Project.
https://www.green-wood.com/2010/civil-war-project/

http://i.imgur.com/7z4b6jH.jpg
In addition to possums and raccoons (and possibly some skunks?), Green-Wood has a healthy population of groundhogs who have set up notable burrow around the grounds. Another, presumably young, visitor to the cemetery has set out a gift for when they emerge.

http://i.imgur.com/VzkEYL7.jpg
Several smaller markers - either parts of a larger piece or stones that were recently exhumed from where they've slumped into the earth - can often be found dotting the landscape almost randomly. I like how this one has been installed like a fairy home.

http://i.imgur.com/BBsmXtU.jpg
Basquiat's grave is a personal favorite as I'm a fan of his work. It's one of the most heavily-sought out (and, given the size of the stone, hardest to find) spots in the cemetery and attracts the most offerings from visitors. Generally these are cleared out on a weekly-or-so basis by the groundskeepers but, given the current influx of bodies and general madness, I imagine they're running behind. I've found letters, artwork, pens, paints, spray cans, money, all kinds of stuff here. Today's sighting includes a cunning miniature bust of Van Gogh made of Sculpey clay (barely visible in this picture above the dash in "Jean-Michel"), a tattered Puerto Rican flag and a macrame coaster.

http://i.imgur.com/EXKR3rp.jpg
Age has worn down most of the stones and left behind a dark patina of lichen and soot. Sometimes this makes them difficult to decipher; sometimes it renders them newly beautiful in ways the original sculptor could hardly have dreamed of.

http://i.imgur.com/tv9SeGM.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/JOAdnAg.jpg
One of the best of the Cemetery's many outrageous ornamental door handles.

http://i.imgur.com/i0IKR9g.jpg

Spectacular metal work on a tomb door window.

http://i.imgur.com/UoH7J9G.jpg
Probably unrelated... but who knows!

http://i.imgur.com/ya3y67y.jpg
This grave is something of an ongoing mystery for me. There are no other markings or names on the stone but the ones you see here and the marker stands a good seven feet tall. There are no stones for a considerable portion of space in front of the marker... enough room to, say, bury a horse. That said, when I asked him, the Cemetery historian stated categorically that he does not believe there is a horse buried on the grounds. One wonders if perhaps the Seaman in question is Seaman Lichtenstein who, as per this 1902 obit "was a lover of horses and owned many fast trotters, some of which held records"? Further research and conversation is likely necessary.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136450223/seaman-lichtenstein

http://i.imgur.com/94oBWzm.jpg
A shady spot hides a uniquely stylized rendering of the Sacratissimum Cor Iseu (aka "Sacred Heart of Jesus") pose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart

http://i.imgur.com/2kmjFIl.jpg
It was once common to have a head and foot stone, especially over the grave of children, with a garden running between. Most of these are now barren so it's always a treat to see new life sprouting from within.

http://i.imgur.com/uPPHx34.jpg
Two-year-old John R Hardenbergh was my May 3 "happy death day" sighting. The 1904 Corporate Directory linked below lists Thomas E Hardenbergh as the Secretary of the NJ Singer Manufacturing Company
https://books.google.com/books?id=IOU5AQAAMAAJ
https://www.loc.gov/item/nj0983/

http://i.imgur.com/09PMJQ5.jpg
Chatty and esoterically phrased writing on stones always catches my eye. Here's "Children Meet Me In Heaven" "Saved By Grace" and the particularly puzzling "Face To Face" for the Hunt family.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/89367144/john-wesley-hunt

http://i.imgur.com/cmC22VZ.jpg
A flower path up the stairs to Schults... and dig the funky typeface on the family name!

http://i.imgur.com/r7Z7Azs.jpg
The inset stone here does fade against the white background but it has been restored as of 2012 and still lovingly describes the outlines of Isabelle Georgia's beautiful cameo. The inscription below reads "Adored By All Who Knew Her"

http://i.imgur.com/bDqrb2M.jpg
Not pictured: Hufflepuff across the way.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/13-hours-22-bodies-long-lonesome-shift-crematory-worker-heat-n1186981

was walking up a hill at the front gate and saw the smoke coming up and recognized what I was seeing and there's a moment

some real pressure points from that link

Padilla began working at Green-Wood three years after the 9/11 attacks. He started as a part-time landscaper, but three years later, in 2007, a full-time job opened up. To land it, Padilla had to complete a 40-day trial that culminated in a unique test given to all prospective Green-Wood employees: dig a full-size grave by himself in under four hours.

“I dug the hole, and I cried the minute I was done, like a little baby,” said Padilla, who was then 27. “It was a major accomplishment for myself.”

“I love coming here every day, even with everything that’s happening,” Padilla said. “Have you seen this place?” he said when asked why. “How beautiful it is?”

Padilla said the crisis hit him especially hard one day last week when he noticed two sets of remains came in the same day, a man and woman with the same last name. Padilla said it appeared they were a husband and wife who both died from COVID-19, apparently within hours of each other.

Padilla drove toward the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and headed east, nodding his head to tracks from the late rapper Pop Smoke. He soon pulled up outside his home in Middle Village, Queens, where he lives with his girlfriend.

It was nearing 10 p.m. Padilla knew there were about two dozen sets of remains waiting for him when he showed up at work the next morning. Thursday was the first day of his work week. He had six more days ahead of him. But he wasn’t thinking about that now. He was exhausted and just wanted to take a shower. Padilla walked into his bedroom and kicked off his shoes, but he never made it to the shower. He lay down in his bed, still fully dressed, and drifted off into a deep sleep.

Speaking of Pop Smoke, I kept running into groups of kids in hoodies in the same section of the cemetery and couldn't figure out why... that's hardly a regular occurrence. A bit of research revealed he was buried in one of the new sections of the cemetery and they must be paying respects. I'll try to find and get a photo next time I'm in there.

I have a few hundred more pictures from the past two weeks but it takes time to upload and curate and read up on the histories... anybody care?

I like looking and reading the histories (if they're short). But it's on your time, so do what you will.

Experimental/Broadway composer/singer/songwriter Gelsey Bell just released a music-infused walking tour of Green-Wood; I'm a fan of her work and figure this is worth $7 for either a virtual exploration or an in-person one if you're nearby enough to do it there. I'll test drive afore too long.
https://gelseybell.bandcamp.com/album/cairns

took a walk out there to get my head together and found an all-time champion.

Ladies, gentlemen, intersex and non-binary: allow me to introduce you to... Mother Puttfarcken

http://i.imgur.com/X8XZByf.jpg

It wasn't particularly close given the sheer quality of "Mother Puttfarcken" but second place name of the walk went to the under-any-other-circumstances strong contender: Sister Eunice Dibble Rehorn
http://i.imgur.com/IEtZqYa.jpg

Bronze goes to Flossey M. Sullivan, "A bud on earth to bloom in Heaven."
http://i.imgur.com/TNVY6Fz.jpg

Epitaph weirdo of the day is this line for two-year old baby Clydie: "Who plucked that flower? THE MASTER!"
http://i.imgur.com/vPmMu2I.jpg

Second place:
http://i.imgur.com/OZ8vKns.jpg

Kinda love these two.
http://i.imgur.com/eWWblBA.jpg

I needed these, thank u forks

i'm glad! i wish you'd come out sometime.