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

These books will help make any cemetery tour extra-special. Click on  My Favorite Cemetery Travel Books  to read my latest article.

This strikingly detailed bronze replica of Michelangelo’s Pietà is very personal to me as both a New Yorker, and a Long Islander. The granite memorial tablet, in the shape of a cruciform, behind the statue, bears the names, and occupations, of more than 400 of the victims who perished on September 11 or who later died from a 9/11-related illness. The years have not dimmed the horrors of that day.

  This summer I finally made it to East Hampton to visit Green River Cemetery. It had been on my list of cemeteries to visit for a long time. And while I'd read a lot about it, and included it in an article I wrote for  Newsday  about tombstone tourism on Long Island, seeing it was something else. Many of the graves are marked by boulders, rather than  tombstones. It may have been a traditional begun by Artist Jackson Pollo ck, and his wife Lee Krasner. Actor Peter Boyle, too, chose a boulder to mark his final resting place. As does Steven J. Ross, the former CEO of Time Warner.  The tragic deaths of brother and sister Courtney and Robert Steel stopped me in my tracks. Courtney was killed by a drunk driver less than two years after her brother died of cancer at the age of 19. 

  Green River Cemetery, in East Hampton, is filled with out-of-the-ordinary styles of memorialization.  These film reels mark the grave of Stan VanDerBeek, an acclaimed independent film maker.  Talk about unique! Two of his major works were included in the exhibit 'The American Independent Cinema: 1958-1964'' at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in 1984, the year VanDerBeek died.

Green River Cemetery, located in East Hampton, is one of the cemeteries I included in a 2019 article I did for Newsday about tombstone tourism on Long Island, for Newsday. While only three acres, there is an eclectic group of people buried here, and for many of them, boulders serve as tombstones. The grave of actor Peter Boyle, of 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Everyone Loves Raymond' fame is one example.

I recently learned that comedian Jackie Mason, who died last year, was buried on Long Island. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to stop at the cemetery. His monument, on a main road, is large, impressive, and well-visited. What I was especially taken by were the words his wife had inscribed on the monument, and the smaller stone in front of it. In the 1980s, Mason had a show on Broadway, which I attended with a mutual friend. After the show, the three of us had dinner together. Mason was just as funny in private, as he was on stage.

 For May's  American Cemetery & Cremation , I interviewed 5 popular Instagram taphophiles. In the article they talk about why they photograph cemetery monuments, what they look for, and what they hope to impart to readers.

 On a cold day in early March of 2021, I visited Hartsdale Pet cemetery for the first time. I was looking for a different kind of cemetery profile, and this more than fit the bill. Despite the chill, I was fascinating by the often elaborate memorials, and sentimental epitaphs which honor beloved pets of  many kinds. Cats, dogs, birds, rabbits....even a tiger, are commemorated here with unconditional love and devotion.   My article about Hartsdale was the cover story for American Cemetery  magazine's Nov. 2021 issue-- and it became one of my most popular profiles. 

  In 2003, it became big news when it was discovered that a fully-grown Bengal tiger was living in a New York City apartment. The 400-pound feline, named Ming, was the pet of an eccentric cab driver who brought him home as a six-week-old cub. Ming was sent to Noah’s Lost Ark, Inc., a sanctuary for exotic animals in rural Ohio, where he roamed free. After he  died in 2019, the sanctuary contacted  Hartsdale Pet Cemetery about the possibility of interring him. However, transporting the tiger became an impossibility, so Ming was cremated. In April of that year a large urn containing his cremated remains was interred in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery following a brief ceremony.    To learn more about Ming's life:   A Farewell to Ming, the Siberian-Bengal Tiger Who Spent Three Years in a Harlem Apartment

  "A Pocket of Peace," a profile of Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, in Westchester, New York, is the cover story for November's American Cemetery & Cremation magazine.  It was a delight to learn more about this very special place, and to see the outpouring of love at every turn.

  The graves of the Prentiss brothers lie side by side in the shadow of the Historic Chapel near tranquil Valley Water. During the Civil War, the brothers from Maryland fought on separate sides. Both were mortally wounded in the same attack. The storied poet Walt Whitman ministered to both brothers and later wrote about them. In 2008, new gravestones, courtesy of the Veterans Administration, were unveiled in front of the Prentiss brother's illegible 19th-century marble gravestones.

  Sandy was the beloved pet dog of a Bronx real estate developer. For her eternal resting place, he decided to have a small replica of his family mausoleum built in Hartsdale Pet Cemetery. Constructed of Barre granite, it sports a bronze door with a handle in the shape of an S. The developer has been quoted as saying that he "wanted to give her a last special gift."

Ten years after I first saw the mausoleum of  hotel I returned for another visit.   The mausoleum, designed in 1927 by the well-known architect Franklin Naylor. Naylor considered it to be the largest and most intricate design of his career and published a pamphlet detailing the construction process. The structure, which blends Beaux-Arts and Renaissance Revival architecture, is one of the largest private mausoleums in the world.

This exquisite statue in St. John Cemetery is o ne of my perennial favorites. I've photographed this monument in every season, year after year.

  This month's 'American Cemetery & Cremation'  magazine contains my article 'Windows into Long Island's Past.' For the piece,  I profiled six of the Island's noteworthy cemeteries --Long Island National, Mount Ararat, Holy Rood, Locust Valley, Memorial Cemetery of St. John's Episcopal & All Saints --along with photos. American Cemetery & Cremation is a must-read magazine for taphophiles, and now is a perfect time to become a subscriber, if you're not already. This month,  American Cemetery & Cremation  is offering a year's worth of issues at the low price of $25.00 (that's little more than a $1.00 per issue).  You can click on this link to subscribe .

Last night, I attended  a most unique event at Green-Wood Cemetery with my friend & fellow funeral director, Doris Amen. It was a two mile stroll through the grounds, after dark, on a perfect fall evening . Along the way, we encountered performance artists stationed in and around some of Green-Wood’s many notable mausoleums and monuments. Food stations, too, were available . Our ties to Green-Wood run deep. Doris is the cemetery’s “go to” funeral director, having handled the funerals of the cemetery president’s family, as well as many of the staff’s loved ones. While I, enamored with the grounds from my very first visit as a funeral director, wrote a  book  about the place. During the researching and writing process, I traversed the grounds countless times. Still, seeing it at night is something extra-special. Even in the dark, we discovered new sites and saw others in a different light. Highlights were the Currier (of Currier & Ives) monument lit up in pink, and ...

  In August, I was given a tour of All Saints Cemetery, on Long Island in preparation for an article I was working on. It was a real thrill for me, as a writer -- and taphophile -- to be shown the grave of William Zinsser, the author of "On Writing Well." Such an unexpected name in an unexpected place. I've included the cemetery & his name, along with my latest article --Windows into Long Island's Past -- for American Cemetery & Cremation magazine.

Composer and conductor extraordinaire, Marvin Hamlisch, wrote the award-winning  What I Did For Love for the musical  "A Chorus Line."  It is a fitting inscription on Hamlisch's memorial in Mt. Zion Cemetery.  His funeral in Manhattan's Temple Emanu-El was a  glorious celebration of  his myriad contributions to the entertainment world.

Among the 50,000 + people buried in Mt. Ararat in Lindenhurst, New York, are some of Long Island’s most recognizable names. Foremost among them is Fortunoff. In 1922, Max and Clara Fortunoff began the popular retail store in Brooklyn moving   to Westbury in 1964. What became a shopping mecca for Long Islanders closed in 2009. Max Fortunoff died in 1987, at the age of 89. He is buried with his wife, Clara, daughter Marjorie Mayrock, who preceded him in death, and a number of other family members. The Fotunoff/Mayrock plot is located under a towering oak tree, on a shady corner, at the far end of the cemetery. His footstone reads: He Lived the American Dream .

This cast iron bear marks the grave of artist William Holbrook Beard who was known for his depiction of human-like animals. Bears were particular favorites of his. His work can be seen in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of his most famous paintings was "Bulls and Bears in the Market in 1879. The work was a satirical rendition of the behavior of investors.  Beard was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery in 1900. But f or more than a hundred years, Beard's burial site remained unmarked. However, the cemetery decided to intervene and contacted Alexander Acevedo, a NYC art gallery owner who had previously exhibited Beard's work., To raise funds for a memorial, Acevedo appealed to donors, and Colorado sculptor Dan Ostermiller responded with a sculpture of a bear sitting on a headstone.