Woodlawn Cemetery

If you like cemeteries as much as I do, there's no better time to visit Woodlawn in the Bronx than the spring. I shot so many photos in 2014 that it took me 18 months to edit, organize and post them!

You need a photo pass but the cemetery's office staff and security guys are friendly and helpful.

Susan Olsen and Denise Romero even helped me track down Laurette Taylor, who starred as Amanda in the first Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

Woodlawn opened in 1863.  At 400 acres, it's about half the size of Central Park but just as pretty and a lot less crowded by the living. The winding roads take their names from trees. There's a lake, too.

Many of the graves commemorate familial relationships.

Including some pets, too.

Wasn't it the Rolling Stones who sang "time waits for no one?"

So many names.  More than 300,000 in fact.

Even initials are rendered with care.

Some people leave behind defining clues, like this veteran,

immigrant,

Yankees fan,

cat lady,

physician,

Bhuddist

and sailor.

Large family plots like these reflect an era when people weren't so mobile and mortality rates were higher.

 

Although Woodlawn is non-sectarian, Christian imagery, such as these crosses, dominates.

 

Plenty of angels, too.

Crosses and angels?  Even more pious!

Do obelisks point to heaven?

Idiosyncrasy is in short supply among the headstones.

The mausoleums, mostly built during the Gilded Age, are another story entirely.  As always, money makes a huge difference (literally).

Some are magnificent.  I liked the simplicity (and privacy) of the Harkness Mausoleum, recently restored to its former glory.

Others have impressive sculpture, like the Bliss Memorial.   It honors the people who went down with the Titanic.

 

Isidor Straus, the founder of Macy's, and his wife Ida among those who drowned.

The Untermeyer Memorial has fallen into disrepair, just like the gardens in Yonkers. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney did the sculptures. She also founded the museum that bears her name in lower Manhattan.  You go girl.

The Belmont Memorial Chapel houses the remains of the guy who built the racetrack and his wife, a suffragette.  It knocks off the Chapel of St. Hubert in the Loire Valley (where I once lived) and which now houses the remains of the guy who designed it:  Leonardo da Vinci.

Arabella Huntington is buried here.  Once the richest woman in the world, she was widowed twice by American railroad magnates.

Perfumer Richard Hudnut rests under this elegant tomb.  He was the first businessman to sell cosmetics in both New York and Paris.

Jay Gould, an early one-percenter had the doors to this Greek revival mausoleum soldered shut so body snatchers couldn't get raid the 50+ crypts inside.

Like many men who inherit their wealth, John Harbeck was known more for scandal, in this case a messy divorce, than anything else.  He commissioned Carrere and Hastings, the architects who designed the New York Public Library (where I once worked), to build this chapel, the tallest structure in Woodlawn.

Wikipedia isn't much help in identifying the people who erected these mausoleums.

Landscaping, including several huge old trees, and flowers greatly enhance many of the memorials.

 

 

 

 

 

Even fake flowers add a welcome dash of color.

Oddly enough, memorials in Woodlawn depict men far less than women.

And I didn't include any angels in my back-of-the-envelope census.

Some sculptures emphasize women's traditional roles, like motherhood.

Mourning or beseeching women can be found, too.

 

Nudity is rare.  It figures that both these women (Toshia Mori and Irene Castle) were in show business.

There aren't many statues of children.

These three young brothers were struck down by lightning.

 

Woodlawn has a designated children's section.  Plastic and stuffed animals just don't last.

 

Incredible stone carving decorates many of the tombs.

But even stone weathers.

The metal work is just as skilled.

I love the eloquent symbolism of this mosaic.

Stained glass, protected from the elements, really adds a wow factor.

Just add light and voila!

Much of it is secular.  Some of it must be Tiffany.

There's a lot of Christian imagery as well.

 

Stained glass also combines with reflections in interesting ways.  There's a selfie embedded in this first picture.

Shadows enhance this silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

Plenty of famous people populate Woodlawn including jazz greats,

authors,

Broadway legends and progenitors,

African American entrepeneurs,

German film directors

and New York City's most popular mayor.

May all at Woodlawn rest in peace!