On Saturday, students from Shimoda, Japan, visited New York City. A must-see of their tour of the Big Apple: Townsend Harris’s Green-Wood grave. They were joined by students and a teacher from Townsend Harris High School in Queens. So what is that all about? Why would anyone travel halfway around the world to New York … Read more
On December 16, 2010, The Green-Wood Historic Fund dedicated a granite and bronze monument to the memory of those who had died when two airplanes collided over Staten Island fifty years earlier. For an account of that dedication, click here. It was quite a moving day; children who had lost a parent or loved one … Read more
Note: This is a revised version of an earlier post. Last Wednesday, I was told that a woman on our regularly-scheduled trolley tour had an original deed to a Green-Wood lot with her, signed by Henry Pierrepont. Pierrepont was the primary mover behind the establishment of Green-Wood Cemetery in 1838, and was its longtime president. … Read more
Yesterday, I was going through a cache of documents from Green-Wood’s early history, including a handwritten certified copy of its charter by the State of New York on April 18, 1838, as a rural cemetery. Looking through those records, I came upon an envelope with this image on it: This is really quite an image–and … Read more
I’ve collected many things over the years: baseball cards, trains, decoys, cookie jars, and much more. In the 1980s, I went through a stoneware phase. Stoneware was the tupperware of the late 18th century and most of the 19th century: an all purpose storage container. It could hold liquids and solids. American stoneware is a … Read more
I was wandering around Greenpoint a few days ago when I came upon the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Historic District. Who knew? But, I must admit, I was very excited. I knew that Eberhard Faber is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. That was enough for me to immediately fall in love with the E.F.P.C.H.D. (for short, … Read more
Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the launching of the Monitor, the iron ship that changed naval warfare forever. On January 30, 1862, “The Monitor” was launched from the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. President Abraham Lincoln personally approved the plans for the Monitor, saying,”All I have to say is what the girl said … Read more
We had our first snow of 2012 on Saturday–the first snow at Green-Wood since that historic snow at the end of October–when we got to see snow on the ground while trees were still in fall foliage. You can find photographs from that day here. It was a very nice dusting–not a lot of snow, … Read more
On December 13, I posted about the sighting of a bald eagle at Green-Wood. Well, like so many others, it looks like our bald eagle is very much enjoying Green-Wood’s grounds. It has been seen several times by several people, including strollers, bird watchers, and members of our grounds crew. Here’s Ryan Morrisey’s dramatic account … Read more