Posted by Jeff Richman on May 7th, 2018

One of the first monuments a visitor is likely to notice upon coming through Green-Wood's landmarked brownstone Main Gates is the Brooklyn Theatre Fire Monument. It commemorates the tragedy of the evening of December 5, 1876, when 278 souls were lost after a crowded theatre in downtown Brooklyn caught fire and collapsed. That disaster marked the greatest on-land loss of life in what is now New York City up until the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. On Tuesday night, December 5, 1876, the Brooklyn Theatre, on the southeast… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on April 17th, 2018

I recently met at Green-Wood with Professor C. Cuvaj. I know him from several Green-Wood tours he has attended. He is a retired physics professor who is fascinated by cemetery art. A man of great curiosity, he always has questions and is ever eager to learn more. So, for instance, he is compiling a database of all of the artists' monuments at Green-Wood that have a painter's palette on them. He also is photographing all of Green-Wood's metal mausoleum doors. And, he has recently researched the work of the most… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on March 1st, 2018

Theresa LaBianca started working at Green-Wood Cemetery in 1977 as an administrative assistant. She has just retired. In the almost 41 years she was at Green-Wood, Theresa did a lot of day-to-day work with Green-Wood's records, helping it function as a cemetery. But it is clear that the best part of the work, as far as Theresa was concerned, was "solving the mysteries. Finding out who was buried here. Not just the name . . . but finding out who the people were, what they did for a living, how… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on January 25th, 2018

Green-Wood is a 19th-century (and 20th century and 21st century) sculpture garden. If you were alive in 1865, and wanted to see sculpture, Green-Wood was the place for you. Not the Metropolitan Museum. Not the Brooklyn Museum. Green-Wood! Over the years, we have discovered prominent 19th-century sculptors whose works adorn Green-Wood's grounds: Henry Kirke Brown, Charles Calverley, John Moffitt, and many more. Indeed, I have led several tours of their work. But, there are always more discoveries to be made. I recently was working on pinpointing the location on the… Read more

Posted by Jeff Richman on December 22nd, 2017

On November 29, 2017, just a few weeks ago, officials and the public gathered outside Police Headquarters in Manhattan to honor police officers who died in the line of duty—but had not been honored before because their deaths had occurred as the result of an accident or while they were off duty. Such deaths are now routinely honored by the NYPD—but these men, over the years, had not been. The 18 officers who were honored died between 1869 and 2011; the list was compiled by NYPD department chiefs. The officers’… Read more