WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS NEW YORK CEMETERY
New York is one of the most populated and important cities in the world. Due to this, there are over 50 cemeteries distributed among its five districts. Several of them have become national monuments, keeping the remains of some of the most famous figures in history.
We are going to tell you about New York's second-largest cemetery by grave count – 560,000 interred. Surely you have already heard about it; however, we will tell you some things that you may not have known about Green-Wood Cemetery.
Established in 1838, Green-Wood is also one of the first rural cemeteries in America. Along with this early opening comes an interesting history –the cemetery grounds were so beautiful that they inspired the creation of Prospect Park and sparked fierce competition that resulted in the founding of Central Park by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1857.
Things you didn't know about Green-Wood Cemetery
Used to be the talk of the town
When we hear New York, we immediately think of Central Park, one of its most iconic places. However, in the days before the famous park, Green-Wood was what everyone talked about.
Back in the 19th century, 1838 to be precise, when the cemetery opened its doors, it became one of the first landscaped public places in the city; For this reason, locals and tourists came here for picnics, walks, and other recreational activities, by 1860 it received more than 500 thousand visitors a year.
Designed by famous people
If you were wondering why it was a sensation in the 1800s, the reason is that great personalities within the field of engineering and architecture were involved in its design.
Among them, David Bates Douglas, who designed the cemetery, was also chosen to design the Croton Aqueduct. And the main entrance gate of the cemetery was designed by Richard Upjohn, who was responsible for Trinity Church.
A politician made it fashionable
We already discussed how popular the cemetery was to visit amongst locals and tourists. However, it wasn't as popular as a final resting place. Back then, the idea of a cemetery was not that well known, and people were often buried in local graveyards, potter's fields, or churches; plus, New Yorkers didn't like the idea of being buried in Brooklyn so far from the city.
What did the owners of Green-Wood do? They chose a celebrity to promote the name of the cemetery. In 1844, they were granted permission to move from Albany to Green-Wood, the remains of the former mayor, governor, and senator of New York, DeWitt Clinton, who had died in 1828.
And so New York's most fashionable families flocked to it, buying plots in what was now a favorite place of eternal rest. Green-Wood's popularity reached such a point that in 1866, the New York Times wrote: "It is the ambition of the New Yorker to live on Fifth Avenue, walk in the Park and sleep with his parents in Green-Wood."
Keep the secrets of thousands of people
In 2017, the artist Sophie Calle launched an interactive storytelling project in which visitors can deposit their darkest secrets in a marble obelisk. Beneath an inscription that reads: "Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery," whoever wants can slip in a piece of paper with their deepest secrets.
The project will last 25 years – that is, it will end in 2042, during which time Sophie Calle will empty the vault and burn the secrets that New York hides.
These are just some of the curiosities that Green-Wood hides, the second-largest New York cemetery.
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