Monday, June 11, 2012
The Cottage Community of Architect Atterbury
Grosvenor Atterbury is one of several prominent architects --along with James Fenwick and Richard Upjohn--buried in Green-Wood Cemetery. While during the course of his long career Atterbury was responsible for the design of many prominent structures, he is most remembered for designing the stately Tudor and Colonial style homes which comprise the exclusive enclave known as Forest Hills Gardens. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (son of the co-designer of Central Park and Prospect Park) was the landscape architect on this 1908 project of one of America’s oldest planned communities. Residents have included Jimmy Breslin, Geraldine Ferraro, Branch Rickey (the baseball executive who signed Jackie Robinson) and CSI actor David Caruso.
Atterbury died in 1956 at the age of 87 in Southampton Hospital. He is buried beneath a simple stone --which notes that he was an inventor architect--in a shady and secluded family plot. His father was a lawyer who became the general counsel for the Erie Railway and his maternal grandfather, Samuel Latham Mitchill, was a physician and politician. Mitchill was also a proponent of the construction of the Erie Canal, a project undertaken by his close friend, DeWitt Clinton, also buried in Green-Wood.
In 2008, Cottage Living Magazine ranked Forest Hills Gardens as the number one “cottage community” in the United States. And recent online postings can be found for tours of “Grosvenor Atterbury’s Forest Hills.”
Atterbury's former Manhattan residence was listed for sale in 2011at the staggering price of $38 million. Realtors generously said they would seal the deal for a cool $35million.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 Taphophiles
For May's American Cemetery & Cremation , I interviewed 5 popular Instagram taphophiles. In the article they talk about why they ph...

-
This monument is to the DeFeo family, who were all murdered in their Amityville, LI home in November of 1974. Ronald DeFeo Sr., his wife L...
-
"A Pocket of Peace," a profile of Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, in Westchester, New York, is the cover story for November's Americ...
-
At the 1972 funeral of Jackie Robinson, 2,500 people packed Riverside Church in New York City. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, NY C...
-
Hungarian-born journalist and newspaper publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, was born Jozsef Politzer in 1847. Several years after the death of his ...
-
Way back when, the first significant monument I was introduced to at Green-Wood was the "bride." So significant was this that I ...
-
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...
-
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...
-
One of the most unique mausoleums to be found in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery is that of successful Atlanta businessman, Jasper Newton Smith. ...
-
For May's American Cemetery & Cremation , I interviewed 5 popular Instagram taphophiles. In the article they talk about why they ph...
-
This Norman Revival hillside tomb, which contains the remains of the Lispenard Stewart family, was designed by James Fenwick in 1889. The...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.