Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Explained

Woodlawn Cemetery
Nrhp Type:nhl
Location:Webster Avenue and East 233rd Street
Woodlawn, Bronx, The Bronx
Coordinates:40.8892°N -73.8733°W
Added:June 23, 2011
Designated Nrhp Type:June 23, 2011
Refnum:11000563
Designated Other1:New York State Register of Historic Places
Designated Other1 Num Position:bottom
Designated Other1 Number:00501.001264
Designated Other1 Abbr:NYSRHP
Designated Other1 Date:June 23, 2011

Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and a designated National Historic Landmark. Located south of Woodlawn Heights, Bronx, New York City,[1] it has the character of a rural cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery opened during the Civil War in 1863,[2] in what was then Yonkers, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.[3] It is notable in part as the final resting place of some well-known figures.

Locale and grounds

The Cemetery covers more than 400acres[2] and is the resting place for more than 300,000 people. Built on rolling hills, its tree-lined roads lead to some unique memorials, some designed by famous American architects: McKim, Mead & White, John Russell Pope, James Gamble Rogers, Cass Gilbert, Carrère and Hastings, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Beatrix Jones Farrand, and John La Farge. The cemetery contains seven Commonwealth war graves – six British and Canadian servicemen of World War I and an airman of the Royal Canadian Air Force of World War II.[4] In 2011, Woodlawn Cemetery was designated a National Historic Landmark, since it shows the transition from the rural cemetery popular at the time of its establishment to the more orderly 20th-century cemetery style.[5]

As of 2007, plot prices at Woodlawn were reported as $200 per square foot, $4,800 for a gravesite for two, and up to $1.5 million for land to build a family mausoleum.[6]

Burials moved to Woodlawn

Woodlawn was the destination for many human remains disinterred from cemeteries in more densely populated parts of New York City:[7]

The fictional cemetery of the Synagogue in Brooklyn in the film Once Upon a Time in America is actually located here, renamed "Riverdale Cemetery".[10]

Notable burials

See main article: List of interments at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York). Numerous notable persons have been interred at Woodlawn Cemetery including: Chief Justice of the United States Charles Evans Hughes; influential New York urban planner and builder Robert Moses; actress Cicely Tyson, aviation pioneer Harriet Quimby, performer, playwright and producer George M. Cohan; gangster Bumpy Johnson; authors Nellie Bly, Countee Cullen, Clarence Day, Damon Runyon, E.L. Doctorow, Herman Melville, and Dorothy Parker;[11] musicians Irving Berlin, Miles Davis, Felix Pappalardi, Duke Ellington, W. C. Handy, Fritz Kreisler, Pigmeat Markham, King Oliver, and Max Roach; singers Celia Cruz and Florence Mills; Film director Otto Preminger; husband and wife magicians Alexander Herrmann and Adelaide Herrmann; sportswriter Grantland Rice; gunfighter and US marshal Bat Masterson; developer of the Rolfing body therapy and noted female biochemist Ida Rolf; and, businessmen such as shipping magnate Archibald Gracie, cosmetics manufacturer Richard Hudnut, America's first self-made millionaire woman Madam C. J. Walker, department store founder Rowland Hussey Macy,[12] [13] and variety store mogul F. W. Woolworth. A large number of New York brewers (e.g., the Haffens of Haffen Brewing Company) are interred there on "Brewer's Row",[14] along with a dozen other brewing scions and their families.[15]

Conservancy

The Woodlawn Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) associated with Woodlawn Cemetery. It began as the Friends of Woodlawn in 1999.[16] It enhances the mission of Woodlawn through fundraising, educational opportunities and outreach with other non-profits. In 2021, over 40 stones were conserved in a joint effort between the Woodlawn Conservancy, the Friends of the Rye African-American Cemetery, World Monuments Fund, and the Jay Heritage Center.[17] The preservation effort was launched to coincide with the new federal Juneteenth celebration.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Hughes . C. J. . Wearing the Green, in More Ways Than One . August 22, 2020 . . July 21, 2011.
  2. Web site: A National Historic Landmark . The Woodlawn Cemetery . November 17, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131116081440/http://www.thewoodlawncemetery.org/ . November 16, 2013 . live .
  3. Book: Jackson, Kenneth T.. Encyclopedia of the City of New York. 1995. Yale University Press. New Haven & New York. 0-300-18257-0.
  4. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1&sort=name&order=asc "Find War Dead"
  5. Web site: National Register of Historic Places listings; July 22, 2011. National Park Service. July 22, 2011. July 25, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20120415072126/http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/listings/20110722.htm. April 15, 2012. live.
  6. Tom Van Riper, America's Most Expensive Cemeteries, Forbes.com, October 26, 2007
  7. Book: Inskeep, Carolee . 1998 . The Graveyard Shift: A Family Historian's Guide to New York City Cemeteries . Ancestry Publishing . 0-916489-89-2 . xii . 2015-10-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160505233254/https://books.google.com/books?id=tIXZvYmOBGIC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=cavalry+cemetery+reburial&source=bl&ots=v8vKeFJs3U&sig=cU1B0lMc0hk78wSEW_AFUxVPc8M#PPR12,M1 . 2016-05-05 . live .
  8. Web site: Forgotten Cemeteries of Inwood. 21 September 2008 . 2014-10-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20141015112416/http://myinwood.net/forgotten-cemeteries-of-inwood/. 2014-10-15. live.
  9. Web site: Staats/States Dyckman biography. New York State Museum. 2014-10-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111524/http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/d/stdyckman.html#biography. 2016-03-04. live.
  10. Web site: Barber. Malcolm. Once Upon A Time In America Locations. onceuponatimeinamerica.net/. 14 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20120916184959/http://www.onceuponatimeinamerica.net/resources/locations.pdf. 16 September 2012. live.
  11. Shapiro . Laurie Gwen . The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker's Ashes . 6 September 2020 . The New Yorker . 4 September 2020.
  12. Web site: Notable People. Woodlawn Cemetery. April 4, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150319043731/http://www.thewoodlawncemetery.org/history/notable-people/. March 19, 2015. live.
  13. News: Neighborhoods: Close-Up on Woodlawn . Village Voice . March 14, 2003 . Cooper, Rebecca . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060620025229/http://www1.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0312,cooper,42639,15.html . June 20, 2006 .
  14. Web site: The Bronx Was Brewing . . June 6, 2021.
  15. Web site: PROJECT: Final Capstone Project for M.A in New York Studies. . The Bronx Was Brewing: A Digital Resource of a Lost Industry . Michelle Hope . Zimmer . . June 6, 2021.
  16. Book: Is the Cemetery Dead?. David Charles Sloane. University of Chicago Press. 2018. 143.
  17. Web site: Bringing History to Life at the African-American Cemetery in Rye, NY. World Monuments Fund. June 25, 2021. December 15, 2021. Dave Thomas.

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