One of my favorite sites at Green-Wood is the spectacular Mackay family Mausoleum. This mausoleum is not only an architectural marvel, but inside contains heat, electricity and an altar. The saga of the Mackay family would have rivaled popular1980's television soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. Patriarch John W. Mackay (I can almost see him played by John Forsyth), made his fortune in mining. It was after the sudden death of his son, John Jr., in 1895, that Mackay had this mausoleum built. When Mackay's younger son Clarence, was married, three years later, his parents gifted him with his very own Stanford White estate, Harbor Hill, situated on Long Island's "Gold Coast". Years later, Mackay's daughter, Ellin, would marry (against her father's wishes) world-renowned composer Irving Berlin.
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Windows into Long Island's Past
This month's 'American Cemetery & Cremation' magazine contains my article 'Windows into Long Island's Past.' ...


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Hungarian-born journalist and newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, was born Jozsef Politzer in 1847. Several years after the death of his ...
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One of the most unique mausoleums to be found in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery is that of successful Atlanta businessman, Jasper Newton Smith. ...
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At the 1972 funeral of Jackie Robinson, 2,500 people packed Riverside Church in New York City. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, NY C...
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One of the most ornate monuments in Green-Wood is that of Charlotte Canda, who died in 1845, on her 17th birthday. Canda’s death was th...
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Way back when, the first significant monument I was introduced to at Green-Wood was the "bride." So significant was this that I ...
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This open –air mausoleum --resembling a gazebo – was built for Marc Antony Zambetti, grandson of the Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company’s found...
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This Norman Revival hillside tomb, which contains the remains of the Lispenard Stewart family, was designed by James Fenwick in 1889. The...
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Frank Costello, born Francesco Castiglia, was luckier than most of his mob cronies --he died a natural death at the age of 82. Having surviv...
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Infamous 1930s crime lord, Dutch Schultz, is buried beneath a bench-like monument --which bears his birth name, Arthur Flegenheimer—in Hawth...
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Over the weekend, Green-Wood Cemetery participated in openhousenewyork (sic). One of the highlights this year was the rare opportunity...

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