“When meeting people I would give them my attorney card. People had the idea that working at a cemetery wasn’t a great thing,” Moylan said. “Now, I am so happy and proud to be president of this place.”
The pride in Green-Wood for Moylan comes out of the cemetery’s public appeal, a place where people come in steady numbers not only to visit the deceased – many with legendary reputations – but also to revel in the beauty of the cemetery’s expansive landscape and rich history.
Though cemeteries can be a symbol of sadness -- and an unlikely place to spend an afternoon, traipsing among headstones, heels sinking gently into the unnaturally sodden ground -- Green-Wood can be a journey to an overlooked place of serenity and peace.
“At Green-Wood there are so many stories to be told about people who pretty much have been forgotten,” said Moylan. “Carrying on the interest in this place is important.”
Founded in 1838, Green-Wood Cemetery developed a reputation for its beauty and became the fashionable place to be buried. By 1860, Green-Wood was attracting 500,000 visitors a year, rivaling Niagara Falls as the country’s greatest tourist attraction. Seemingly unfamiliar to modern culture, crowds gathered at Green-Wood to enjoy family outings, carriage rides and sculpture-viewing. Today we associate this kind of afternoon leisure with Prospect Park or Marine Park -- it was actually Green-Wood which helped inspire the creation of the city’s public parks.
“I've never felt compelled to enter cemeteries. I don't know anyone buried in Green-wood and my rare visits to cemeteries happened on unwanted occasion,” said nearby resident Rachel Lore on a recent visit to the cemetery. “I’m not sure what I was expecting when I got there. Ghosts, hands creeping up from the edges of the ground maybe? But it was beautiful in the most unconventional way. And peaceful – a silence that was not ominous but inviting.”
Visiting the expansive grounds of Greenwood initiates curiosity about the lives that have long passed. With such notable figures as Charles Ebbets, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers; prominent newspaper editor Horace Greeley; Charles Feltman, creator of the hot dog; legions of Civil War generals, baseball figures, politicians, artists, entertainers, as well as everyday people, Green-Wood becomes a place where textual history can be experienced in an uncommon way.
Though Green-Wood was not always open to the public, it now provides walking and trolley tours of the grounds. In recent years, Green-Wood’s staff has been gathering artifacts left behind by families of the deceased, and paintings and other works from artists long buried in the grounds. Moyer and his staff hope for the day when Green-Wood could be a museum space, offering new generations of visitors a rare look into the past.
“Sometimes it’s the notable figures buried here, the landscape, the monuments, the inscriptions, and sometimes it’s even the mushrooms grown here that attract people,” said Moylan. “We’re a living institution, and it’s a place to enjoy.”
Green-Wood is also a Revolutionary War historic site, where the Battle of Long Island was fought in 1776 on what are now its grounds, a designated site on the Civil War Discovery Trail and a registered site in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System. On Sept. 27, 2006, Green-Wood was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, which recognized its national significance in art, architecture, landscaping and history.
“Looking back, I would have been a very unhappy lawyer,” Moyer said with a gentle laugh. “It gave me good training that certainly helps me now. But here, you’re involved in so many things – landscape, building, tours. It’s all pretty encompassing.”
Green-wood Cemetery, at 500 25th Street in Sunset Park, is open to visitors daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., weather permitting. For weekend hours, events, and tours, call 718-768-7300, or visit www.green-wood.com.
Notable burials at Green-Wood:
Samuel Akerly (1785-1845), founder of the New York Institute for the Blind Albert Anastasia (1903-1957), mobster and contract killer for Murder Inc. Othniel Boaz Askew (1972-2003), politician and assassin of James E. Davis (cremated) James Bard (1815-1897), marine artist, buried in unmarked grave Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), artist William Holbrook Beard (1824-1900), painter of Bulls and Bears representing the market cycle; a bear statue sits on top of his headstone Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), abolitionist James Gordon Bennett, Sr. (1795-1872), founder/publisher of the New York Herald Henry Bergh (1818-1888), founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), composer, conductor Samuel Blatchford (1820-1893), U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alice Cary (1820-1871), poet, author Phoebe Cary (1824-1871), poet, author Henry Chadwick (1824-1908), Baseball Hall of Fame member (memorial) Kate Claxton (1850-1924) American theatre actress noted for her role of Louise in the play The Two Orphans. DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), unsuccessful U.S. presidential candidate 1812; U.S. Senator from New York; seventh and ninth Governor of New York Peter Cooper (1791-1883), inventor, manufacturer, abolitionist, founder of Cooper Union James Creighton, Jr. (1841-1862), baseball player Edwin Pearce Christy (1815 – 1862) Minstrel, known for the song Swanee River. Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), artist ("Currier and Ives") Bronson M. Cutting (1888-1935), United States Senator from New Mexico (1927 - 1928; 1929 - 1935) Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838), librettist of Mozart and first Professor of Italian Literature at Columbia University James E. Davis (1962-2003), assassinated City Councilman, was buried here for a few days. Upon learning his killer's ashes were also in Green-Wood, his family had his body exhumed and reinterred in the Cemetery of the Evergreens. Richard Delafield (1798–1873), Chief of Engineers and Superintendent of West Point Francis E. Dorn (1911-1987), US Naval Commander, attorney and 12th District New York congressman for Brooklyn, Kings County. Mabel Smith Douglass (1874-1933), founder and first dean of the New Jersey College for Women Thomas Clark Durant (1820-1885), key figure in building the First Transcontinental Railroad James Durno (1795-1873), husband of labor activist Sarah Bagley (1806-188?) Fred Ebb (1928-2004), lyricist Charles Ebbets (1859-1925), baseball team (Brooklyn Dodgers) owner; built Ebbets Field Elizabeth F. Ellet (1818-1877), American writer and poet Charles Feltman (1841-1910), claimed to be the first person to put a hot dog on a bun Edward Ferrero (1831-1899), American Civil War General at the Battle of the Crater and in the Appomattox Campaign Edwin Forbes (1839-1895), American Civil War and postbellum artist, illustrator, and etcher. Isaac Kaufmann Funk (1839-1912), American editor, lexicographer, publisher, and spelling reformer Henry George, Jr. (1862-1916), United States Representative from New York Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), composer John Franklin Gray (1804–1882), the first practitioner of Homeopathy in the United States. Horace Greeley (1811-1872), unsuccessful U.S. presidential candidate 1872; founder of the New York Tribune Robert Stockton Green (1831-1895), Governor of New Jersey Paul Hall (1914-1980), labor leader Henry Wager Halleck (1815-1872),Chief of Staff during the latter part of the American Civil War William Stewart Halsted (1852-1922), pioneer in American medicine and surgery, often credited as the "Father of Modern American Surgery John Hardy (1835-1913), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York Townsend Harris (1804-1878), first U.S. Consul General to Japan William S. Hart (1864-1946), star of silent "Western" movies Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) - wrote the music to the hymn "Rock of Ages" Philip A. Herfort (1851-1921), violinist and orchestra leader Abram S. Hewitt (1822 – 1903), Teacher, lawyer, iron manufacturer, U.S. Congressman, and a mayor of New York. Son-in-law of Peter Cooper. Henry B. Hidden (c. 1839-1862), American Civil War cavalry officer DeWolf Hopper (1858–1935), actor Elias Howe (1819-1867), invented the sewing machine (see Walter Hunt) Walter Hunt (1785-1869), invented the safety pin James Merritt Ives (1824-1895), artist ("Currier and Ives") Paul Jabara (1948-1992), actor, singer and songwriter Leonard Jerome (1817-1891), entrepreneur, grandfather of Winston Churchill Laura Keene (1826-1873), actress (on stage when Lincoln was shot) Florence La Badie, (1888-1917), actress John La Farge (1835-1910), artist Laura Jean Libbey (1862-1924), popular "dime-store" novelist Brockholst Livingston, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Livingston (1723-1790), signer of the U.S. Constitution; first Governor of New Jersey William Lewis Lockwood (1836-1867), one of the founders of the Sigma Chi Fraternity Pierre Lorillard IV (1833-1901), tobacco tycoon, introduced the tuxedo to the U.S. Susan McKinney Steward (1847-1918) one of the first black women to earn a medical degree, and the first in the state of New York Ormsby M. Mitchel (1805-1862) American astronomer and major general in the American Civil War Henry James Montague (1840-1878), stage actor Lola Montez (1821-1861), actress and mistress of many notable men Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872), invented Morse code, language of the telegraph James Kirke Paulding (1779-1860), U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Martin Van Buren; thought to be "author" of "Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers,” although it had already been published in children's primers in Britain as early as 1813 Anson Greene Phelps, (1781-1853) founder of Phelps, Dodge mining and copper company William "Bill The Butcher" Poole (1821-1855), a member of the Bowery Boys gang and the Know Nothing political party; also a bare-knuckle boxer Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820- 1869) was an American journalist and politician and founder of the The New York Times Samuel C. Reid (1783-1861), suggested the design upon which all U.S. flags since 1818 have been based Alice Roosevelt (1861-1884) - first wife of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (1834-1884), mother of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt Robert Roosevelt (1829-1906), uncle of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. (1831-1878), father of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), birth-control and women’s reproductive rights advocate Ira Sankey (1840-1908), hymn composer Frederick August Otto Schwarz (1836-1911), founder of specialty toy retailer FAO Schwarz Henry Warner Slocum (1827-1894), Union General of the American Civil War, U.S. House Representative from N.Y. Ole Singstad (1882 – 1969) Norwegian-American civil engineer, designed Lincoln Tunnel and others. Francis Barretto Spinola (1821–1891), first Italian-American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives Henry Steinway (1797-1871), founder of Steinway & Sons, piano manufacturers William Steinway (1836-1896), son of Henry Steinway, and founder of Steinway, New York James S. T. Stranahan (1808-1898), "Father of Prospect Park,” was an instrumental promoter of the park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the consolidation of Brooklyn into Greater New York Francis Scott Street (1831-1883), co-owner of Street & Smith publishers Thomas William "Fightin' Tom" Sweeny (1820-1892) Irish immigrant and American Civil War general John Thomas (1805-1871), founding father of The Christadelphians Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), artist Matilda (or Mathilda) Tone, widow of Irish rebel Wolfe Tone George Francis Train (1829-1904), railroad promoter Juan Trippe (1899-1981), airline pioneer, headed Pan Am from 1927 to 1968 Robert Troup (1756-1832), Revolutionary War hero, New York State assemblyman and Judge. Body moved to Green-Wood in 1872. William Marcy "Boss" Tweed (1823-1878), notorious New York political boss, member of the U.S. House of Representatives and New York State Senate Steven C. Vincent (1955-2005), American journalist and author kidnapped and murdered in Iraq August 2005 Leopold von Gilsa (d. 1870), American Civil War colonel and brigade commander Charles S. Wainwright, (1826-1907), American Civil War colonel and artillery officer Thomas R. Whitney (1807-1858), member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York Beekman Winthrop (1874-1940), Governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907, and later an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Frank Morgan Wupperman (1890-1949), played the character of the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
