Visiting the Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn, NYC

A trip to the famous and historic Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NYC was made this past week to inter the ashes of a relative.

The gatekeepers were there to admit us and we looked at the wonderful historic entryway and landscape of the cemetery which was opened in 1838.

As the sign indicates, Green-Wood Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is indeed a New York City landmark.

The Gothic spires of the gateway are beautiful,

the trees old and very tall.

Many famous people are buried in Green-Wood.  There were framed portraits of celebrities, such as the Tiffanys,

Frank Morgan, the Wizard of Oz,

Samuel F.B. Morse, and others, in the main office.   The map of the cemetery has marks indicating their grave sites for visitors

Green-Wood keeps up with technology and has a computerized index for lot owners and their family members.

You can print out the location of a particular site so that you can find your way around this large cemetery.

Names and dates are included for all there.

Some of the first families to be included at Green-Wood have granite mausoleums or sarcophagus, others have monuments, headstones, memorial markers, and obelisks.

There are organized tours of Green-Wood.

This was an interesting obelisk, making a site where many people were interred after a NYC fire.

The most unexpected thing that happened that day was seeing the large green Monk Parakeets that have been nesting in the spires of the main gate.  Click there to read more about them and how they might have gotten to Brooklyn.  They are one of a few species of parrots that can survive in more temperate zones such as New York City.  At first the caretakers of the cemetery tried to remove their "unsightly"colony of  nests, but decided to live and let live because the presence of the parakeets reduced the numbers of pigeons.  The parakeets were making a lot of squawking noises when we arrived and one flew right by me with a large twig, on the way to reinforce its nest.

 Here is an  amazing granite pyramid with its Sphinx-like lions and figures guarding the tomb. 

This site marker looked like a wooden cross, made from granite.  Other markers had urns, drapery and figures of humans and animals carved from stone.

A very interesting destination  even on a very cold day.  To get directions and times for visiting click on Green-Wood Cemetery.  (Several pictures were taken by Kevin Moore Kepler.)