Pastoral, gentle Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx doesn’t have the recognition of Green-Wood Cemetery or The Evergreens, both in Brooklyn.
But it’s a similar kind of final resting place: an 1863 “rural” cemetery created after burials were banned in Manhattan for health reasons, and designed almost as parks, for leisure as well as mourning—composed of rolling hills with the remains of 300,000 New Yorkers underneath.
Like Green-Wood and The Evergreens, it’s open to visitors, who are allowed to navigate the landscape and gaze at the angels and other figures that decorate many of the mausoleums and graves.
Captain G.H. Winter was a firefighter, the hat tells us. Could he be the same G.H. Winter awarded a medal for bravery in 1944? This grave looks older than that.
This Botticelli-tressed figure at the Curtis family tomb isn’t merely in mourning—she’s despondent and heartbroken.
Many of New York’s leaders and hometown celebs are buried at Woodlawn: actors, politicians, sports stars, musicians. A complete list is here.
Tags: Big cemetery Bronx, Bronx Cemetery, cemetery angels, cemetery sculpture, Green-Wood Cemetery, New York City graveyards, Rural Cemetery Bronx, Sad Cemetery Angels, The Evergreens Cemetery, Woodlawn Cemetery
December 22, 2012 at 7:50 am |
Wouldn’t it have been incredible to have the job of gravestone designer in the nineteenth century?
January 11, 2013 at 3:42 am |
Thanks for posting these photos. The firefighter’s grave is my great grandfather’s. The heroic firefighter in 1944 was my grandfather. My late father is also buried at this grave. God bless them all. – George H. Winter, IV.
January 11, 2013 at 9:43 pm |
Wow, thank you for writing in. Your grandfather’s heroism is documented in the New York Times, but if you can share anything more about your great-grandfather or father, it would be so appreciated.
The wonderful folks at Woodlawn Cemetery would be interested as well; they have been looking into it since this was posted.
http://www.facebook.com/thewoodlawncemetery.org