A lovely day to relax in Green-Wood Cemetery

It might sound a little macabre to our modern sensibilities.

But in a city with almost no public parks until the late 19th century, what better place was there to take in the fresh air and views of New York Harbor and enjoy the natural landscape than a burial ground?

Which is why half a million Brooklynites and tourists a year flocked to Green-Wood Cemetery, founded in 1838.

Green-Wood was one of the new “rural” cemeteries that allowed people to stroll the grounds, ride 17 miles of carriage drives, and picnic inside a necropolis of 150,000 souls by 1870, according to Lights and Shadows of New York Life.

“[T]he sunlight falls brightly, the birds sing their sweetest over the new-made graves, the wind sighs its dirge through the tall trees, and the ‘sad sea waves’ blend with it all in their solemn undertone from afar,” wrote author James D. McCabe, in wonderfully flowery Victorian-era prose.

Green-Wood “has come to be, next to the Central Park and Prospect Parks, one of the favorite resorts of the people of New York and Brooklyn.”

[Top photo: Green-Wood Cemetery; bottom photo: NYPL]

The sad cemetery angels of Brooklyn

The gentle hills and slopes of Brooklyn’s Evergreens Cemetery are filled with figures of angels: intermediaries between earth and heaven and messengers from God who guard the graves of the dead.

Different angel poses have different meanings. The one above appears to be dropping flower petals, which supposedly symbolizes the spreading of blessings.

Why this angel has its finger to its mouth, I’m not sure. The flowers could indicate a tribute—or that a life in bloom ended too soon.

Not all angels have wings, but perhaps this grief-stricken figure is meant to depict the deep Christian faith of the departed.

Green-Wood Cemetery at the other end of Brooklyn has plenty of haunting angel figures too.

The man who lived and died in a Brooklyn tomb

It’s a tale of love and rather creepy devotion from 19th century Brooklyn:

Retired truckman Jonathan Reed’s wife, Mary, died in 1893. The grief-stricken East New York resident had his wife’s remains placed in a mausoleum in the Evergreens Cemetery.

Lonely, heartbroken, and likely a little crazy, Jonathan soon began visiting Mary’s tomb every day.

He put many of his wife’s beloved things in there: paintings, photos, red curtains, silverware, yarn, old gloves, even their pet parrot.

Then he brought a rocking chair and a stove to warm the place up. Convinced his wife was still alive, he made the mausoleum his daytime home for the next 10 years.

In an interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1895, he stated:

“My wife was a remarkable woman and our lives were blended into one. When she died, I had no ambition but to cherish her memory. My only pleasure is to sit here with all that is left of her.”

His story went international; thousands of people visited him, including some Tibetan monks, assuming he had insight on life after death.

He died in the tomb in March 1905—his remains in a casket beside Mary’s.

[Tomb photo: Brooklyn Bridge Baby photostream]

The fireman memorial at a Brooklyn cemetery

The Evergreens Cemetery, 225 acres on the Bushwick-Ridgewood border, doesn’t get a fraction of the attention Green-Wood Cemetery receives.

But it should. Incorporated in 1849, this peaceful burial ground is a necropolis of over half a million.

Think Civil War soldiers, Lincoln assassination figures, artists and actors, and thousands of ordinary prosperous German-Americans who settled in this part of the city in the 19th century.

Among the elaborately carved angels and mausoleums is a curious firefighter memorial: two statues of firemen plus the gravestones of fallen firefighters from several Eastern District volunteer hose, hook, or engine companies.

An 1858 New York Times news brief describes its beginning:

“The Board of Representatives of the Eastern District Fire Department, at a recent meeting, adopted a plan for a monument to be erected on the grounds in the Cemetery of the Evergreens.

“The design is a marble pedestal six feet square, upon which is to be placed a full-size statue of a fireman.

“The whole ground to be surrounded by a galvanized iron fence, the posts representing Corinthian hydrants. The expense, it is estimated, will not exceed $2,500, and the work will be commenced forthwith.”