The Rural Cemetery
The idea of the rural cemetery, with its roots in the ancient Greek Kerameikos (a burying ground outside Athens), spread through Europe and America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Obelisks along Coropsis Path

The Opportunity
Pierrepont’s ideas for a cemetery, however, lay dormant until the Depression of 1837.

The Pierrepont Monument was designed by famed church architect Richard Upjohn. It is made of brownstone, Upjohn’s favorite building material. Gothic Revival in style, it is an open-air church.

The Early Years
On April 18, 1838, by act of New York State's Legislature, "The Green-Wood Cemetery" was incorporated "for the purpose of establishing a public burial ground in the City of Brooklyn," and was authorized to purchase up to 200 acres.

The Struggle
To Survive Yet, despite the forces that prompted Green-Wood Cemetery’s birth, it was far from an overnight success.

The City Hall Park unveiling of the Clinton statue, which was destined for Green-Wood, was the front page story in New York’s Illustrated News on June 4, 1853.

Its Importance
In The Nineteenth Century As Green-Wood Cemetery emerged from its early years, it became a source of national pride with an international reputation.

Its Evolution
Green-Wood Cemetery has changed over the years.

By 1891, the year this photograph was published, the cemetery was filling up, as this scene near the Henry Ward Beecher’s grave shows.