Gardens of Stone --- A Cemetery Blog by Alexandra Kathryn Mosca

I was among the many New Yorkers who were stunned and saddened to hear of the sudden death, on March 19th, of venerable and popular NY Daily News reporter Joyce Shelby. Her death is a great loss to the media. A seasoned reporter, with a most impressive body of work, Ms. Shelby was also a real lady and easy to talk to. I know this first hand, because she interviewed me back in November about my new Green-Wood Cemetery book, regarding it as a natural for the Brooklyn section. Joyce, a fan of Green-Wood, had written about the cemetery before and regaled me with a funny story about photographing the parrots which have taken up residency there. Naturally, I was looking forward to seeing the article about my book run, but that was not to be. After a couple of postponements, the piece was killed by the Brooklyn bureau chief. Joyce called me with the news - we were both disappointed - and said she would repitch it in the spring. We spoke again in early March, for the last time. Over the years...

A relatively new addition (2006) to Green-Wood is the Tranquility Garden area which contains over 8,000 niches for cremated remains. Cozy rooms offer seating arrangements where one can reflect. A friend of mine told me he could "sit there for hours". Outside, a large koi pond filled with beautiful fish, calms the senses. This entire area makes one think of cremation in an entirely different way.

DeWitt Clinton was so many things to New York: Governor, Senator, Mayor and instrumental in the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton also plays a large part in Green-Wood's history as it was Clinton's reburial in Green-Wood -he was originally buried in the Clinton Cemetery in New Britain, NY - that became Green-Wood's first major tourist attraction. This photo shows the exquisitely detailed full-length bronze sculpture, by Henry Kirke Brown, in which Clinton is dressed in contemporary clothing along with a Roman toga draped around his waist and over his left shoulder.   An archival shot of the statue shows it was originally surrounded by a fence,

This majestic mausoleum houses the remains of Charles Feltman, credited with "inventing" the hot dog. In 1871, Feltman opened the Feltman Restaurant and Beer Garden in Coney Island. His establishment proved hugely popular, and on one day alone, Feltman's was said to have served 40,000 hot dogs. Not only did Feltman know how to feed a hungry crowd, he also had an eye for picking staff, employing Jimmy Durante and Eddie Cantor as a pianist and singing waiter pair; two men who would go on to achieve their own celebrity. But the most famous alumni of Feltman's, hands down, was Nathan Handwerker, who worked as a roll-cutter and delivery boy. Handwerker went on to open a little hot dog place of his own in Coney Island: Nathan's.

One of my favorite places to visit at Green-Wood is the spectacular Mackay family mausoleum. This architectural marvel  boasts heat, electricity, and an altar inside.  The  story of the Mackay family is as dramatic as a popular 80s TV soap like Dallas or Dynasty.  John Forsyth could easily play Patriarch John W. Mackay, who made his fortune in mining.  It was after the sudden death of his son, John Jr., in 1895 that Mackay had this mausoleum built.  Three years later, when Mackay's younger son, Clarence, married, his parents gifted him a Stanford White estate, Harbor Hill, on Long Island's "Gold Coast."  Mackay's daughter, Ellin, went against her father's wishes and married world-renowned composer Irving Berlin.

Often referred to as "The Father of Green-Wood," it was Henry Evelyn Pierrepont's vision and planning that made Green-Wood happen. Pierrepont's Gothic-Revival, open-air mausoleum was designed by famed architect Richard Upjohn.

One of the most special places in Brooklyn is Green-Wood Cemetery. Twenty years ago, I saw it for the first time and thought it was the most magnificent cemetery I'd ever seen. And I had seen a lot of cemeteries in my career as a funeral director. Of course, back then, there was no way of knowing that twenty years later, in 2008, I would do a book about the place. But that's just what I did. After years of profiling noted cemeteries and famous funerals, as a freelance writer, I got the opportunity to delve into the history of the most famous cemetery in America. I knew many of Green-Wood's famous residents when I began the project. Still, as I continued to research by traversing the grounds and reading all I could about the place and its history, it became a question of winnowing down subjects to include in the book. If I were to do a  Green-Wood Cemetery  Part II, III, IV & V, I could not possibly include all the stories Green-Wood has to tell. I want to share some of ...