A customer mentioned Green-wood to me before our New York trip. I haven't been working with him long, but somehow he just knew. Some back story, I like to say I was punk/goth in highschool and college. Saying it is one thing, I think I just dipped a toe into them. (I was an angry teen.) Cemeteries have always been calming for me and an odd way to connect with the past as well as with nature. I admit, it's strange to most folk, but it's just one of my things.
From the cemetery's about page:
I was excited to see that there was a trolley tour. I didn't realize tickets go fast. When I went to purchase a ticket, they were sold out, but there was a mention of a waiting list, which I joined the night before the tour. While Daniel, MIL, and BIL/partner went to visit the 9/11 memorial, I went to Green-wood.
Green-wood is an example of how glaciers shaped the land many years ago. It has been left in its original state, without any hardscaping done. As such, most of it is quite hilly (and steep!) and then one section is very flat. If you go and don't take the trolley tour, go by car or something motorized to help get around.
While waiting to see if I could join the tour, I met some great folk. One couple was there for a scavenger hunt. It was then that I learned to get on the tour you have to buy a ticket, and if it was day of it had to be cash. I had no idea and had no cash on me. A wonderful woman took pity on me and once we learned there was space, she paid my ticket. I am so incredibly grateful for this! At the end of the tour I gave her my business card and hope that she reaches out so that I can repay her. Regardless, I am thankful and will happily pay the favor forward in the future.
The trolley tour is about 2 hours long. There is both the trolley - which is air conditioned - and a 'caboose' that had windows with plastic that rolled up for a breeze (or let down if it's raining.)
Walking up the hill to the entrance there was a cool art installation/memorial for fallen trees.
The entrance was very large and gothic. I learned from the scavenger hunt folk that there are parrots that live in it! The lore is that they are Argentinian parrots (meaning they can handle New York winters!) that the crate fell off a plane or ship and have lived at the cemetery entrance for decades.
The funerary art was incredibly varied and lovely. Our tour guide, Margot, is a hoot. I strongly recommend her tours just based on her personality, although her knowledge of the cemetery is incredibly vast and deep. If you are lucky, she may also sing for you! (That's her day job.)
We saw the graves of several of the famous and not so famous folk. One in the latter category is George Washington's dentist. I kid you not.
Let me share with you about the scavenger hunt the couple on the waiting list with me was on. She is a member of a club as a way to target her photography skills. One she is a member of was a series of clues to find specific items and take a selfie with those items. For those who find all of the items they are then enrolled in a raffle to possibly win $1,776. All the items were specific to America's 250th anniversary. The item at Green-wood was a tree planted specifically for the anniversary. She shared her IG moniker with me (@RoadAtlas#, I forget the number she said. 🙁 )
The tree was on Battle Hill which has some really cool history tied to it. Although, take it with a grain of salt as another person on the tour who was standing beside me muttered about "white washing history." That hill had a vault for the Harrison family who paid for a statue. If you stand behind the statue and look in the distance, you can see the Statue of Liberty. They even have opposite raised arms.
One of my favorite stories comes from a valut near a glacier (spring fed) pond. In the first few decades of the cemetery's life, they advertised that folk can buy a family plot so they would have somewhere to go have picnics, etc. The story was about a guy who would regularly come to his vault to just chill, fish, etc. One day he didn't come home and his family freaked out. They searched for him all over and finally found him - napping - in the vault. He didn't get the big to do about getting home later than normal. The image below is looking away from his vault.
The other grave that stood out to me is the founder of the ASPCA, Harry Bergh. The headquarter building is in New York City. When they moved (or rebuilt?) the building, the brass logo was loaned to his grave.
Margot has several types of tours she gives. I did search for the hill out of Dr Who, Angels Take Manhattan, but as I stuck with the tour and had to get back to the hotel after the tour I didn't spend too much effort on it. I would love to go back (with a car) to spend more time there and take more of her tours.