Day 489

The Bliss memorial

May 2nd, 2013



This unique monument was commissioned by William H. Bliss and his wife, Anna, sometime around 1913, a couple of decades before their deaths. An 1919 architectural review of the "William H. Bliss memorial" calls it "a significant contribution to the art of funereal commemorative monumental design" and says its "design gives evidence of thought and of a serious purpose and it establishes new precedents in this field of design."

If you search online, you'll find a multitude of sites referring to this monument as the "Annie Bliss Titanic Memorial" (or some variation thereof) and stating that Mrs. Bliss dedicated it to all those lost in the tragedy. While the monument does have a nautical theme — for instance, the Wordsworth line "Our souls have sight of that immortal sea which brought us hither" is carved into the exedra — and was designed just a year after the Titanic sank, I didn't see any text on it referencing the disaster (although I wasn't looking too closely at the time), and I can't find any mention of Mrs. Bliss's supposed dedication in the historical record.

Perhaps its location directly across from the Straus tomb (see previous post), combined with the fact that Woodlawn is said to have more "Titanic people" than any other cemetery in the US, has helped fuel this seemingly apocryphal claim. And it can't hurt that the two sculpted characters look like Jack and Rose from the movie Titanic — at least to the eyes of some younger cemetery visitors. (I also feel the need to note that the NY Times blog post to which I've now linked twice in this paragraph refers to Mrs. Bliss as an "heiress to a laxative fortune".)

Day 489

Memorial to a Marriage

May 2nd, 2013



This sculpture by Patricia Cronin, depicting her and her wife, Deborah Kass, embracing in bed, will one day mark the couple's graves here at Woodlawn. When the original marble version of this work was installed in 2002, same-sex marriage was not legal anywhere in the United States. But less than nine years later, on a July day in 2011, Ms. Cronin and Ms. Kass found themselves tying the knot at the Marriage Bureau in Manhattan. "Making this was a little prophetic", said Ms. Cronin, referring to the memorial. "I never thought the law would change this quickly." (She replaced the marble monument with this bronze version a couple of months after the nuptials.)

You can see more photos of the sculpture here, and read an interview with the artist here.

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A closer look

May 2nd, 2013


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IN MEMORY OF
OUR ONLY BELOVED SON
ENSIGN NATHAN Q. F. PICCIRILLI
WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE
FOR HIS COUNTRY AT THE BATTLE
OF ORMAC BAY, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
ON DECEMBER 7, 1944


(Sculpted by his uncle)

Day 489

Irving Berlin

May 2nd, 2013



This is what Jerome Kern had to say about the Jewish composer of "White Christmas", the best-selling recording of all time, who cranked out an endless stream of hits over the decades: "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music."

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Ralph Bunche

May 2nd, 2013



Olive branches are a fitting symbol for the life of this longtime UN diplomat who became, in 1950, the first African-American winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Day 489

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

May 2nd, 2013



19th-century pioneer of the women's rights movement.

I didn't know it at the time, but not too far away is the grave of George Spencer Millet, who died a bizarre and tragic death on February 15, 1909, the day he turned 15 years old. According to his headstone:

LOST LIFE BY STAB IN FALLING ON
INK ERASER, EVADING SIX YOUNG
WOMEN TRYING TO GIVE HIM
BIRTHDAY KISSES IN OFFICE
METROPOLITAN LIFE BUILDING

Day 489

Joseph Pulitzer

May 2nd, 2013



The eponymous founder of the prestigious prizes for excellence in American journalism was also the father of yellow journalism, making him the grandfather, I guess, of the NY Post and the Daily News and the rest of today's trashy tabloid rags.

Day 489

Herman Melville

May 2nd, 2013



On previous visits to Mr. Melville's grave, I've found much more colorful and appropriate tokens left on his tombstone, including a profusion of pens and a canister of La Baleine Sea Salt. (The one pen in the photo above is mine.)

Day 489

The Harbeck Mausoleum

May 2nd, 2013



From the NY Times:

After the wealthy stockbroker John H. Harbeck died at the Plaza Hotel after a short illness in 1910, his wife, Kate, set about to build the most expensive and impressive mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery. The architect Thomas E. Blake designed a 90-foot-tall marble octagon with a steeple, heavy bronze doors, Tiffany windows and a pipe organ. The mausoleum was built by Guastavino in 1918. Kate was buried in the mausoleum in 1930 after dying in freakish revolving door accident on New Year's Eve at the Plaza Hotel.
A few other miscellaneous items:

• John and Kate were apparently doting pet owners who were ridiculed by their neighbors in Boulder, Colorado (where they had a summer home) for "holding expensive and elaborate funerals" for their dogs.

• After meeting Kate, John went through some messy divorce proceedings with his wife, Caroline, that centered around determining whether Caroline was, in fact, his wife, legally speaking. The NY Times covered the trial pretty heavily, but also evinced some disdain for those captivated by the scandalous affair: "A great number of persons with nothing else to do crowded the court-room . . . yesterday morning, and many more stood in a line for hours waiting for an opportunity to enter".

• In researching the Harbecks, I stumbled upon yet another example of how much better journalism was a hundred years ago. From a 1906 report in the NY Times: "LOST — A CEMENT BARREL. It Had a High Old Time Before It Invaded the Subway". The piece goes on to offer the reader some sage, hard-earned words of wisdom: "an old barrel that is out for a good time and does not care a hoop, any way, is a difficult thing to tackle in a stiff breeze."

• While we're on the subject, you should also read this great NY Times article from 1882 that I discovered a few weeks ago:
Some Italian lunatic residing in Turin has for months past been indulging in the monomania of writing and sending enormous quantities of letters to persons residing in this City . . . The recipients, regarding the matter as an oversight on the part of some foreign or traveling friend, pay the postage and open the letters only to find them filled with balderdash and senseless twaddle in Italian, with a faulty English translation appended, the nonsense being usually addressed "to the noble and illustrious reader," and the writer subscribing himself as "The Emperor of the World, Monarch of the Universe," &c.

Day 489




The mausoleum of Herman O. Armour, co-founder of Armour & Company, the meatpacking giant

Day 489

Portal of the day

May 2nd, 2013


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Well-muscled lions

May 2nd, 2013



Guarding the tomb of George Ehret, the "King of Beer Corners"

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Busty sphinx

May 2nd, 2013



This is one of a pair hanging around the entrance to the mausoleum of Frank Woolworth and his family (including his troubled granddaughter and heiress Barbara Hutton, the "poor little rich girl"). Mr. Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime empire that bore his name, is one of several members of what Woodlawn calls its "Merchant Prince Hall of Fame"; James C. Penney and Rowland H. Macy, among others, can also be found resting peacefully here in the cemetery, Mr. Penney in a used (or "previously owned") mausoleum that he bought from William Randolph Hearst's widow.

Somewhere in the vicinity, I believe, is the pink granite mausoleum of Elvira and Lawrence Wegielski, which for quite a while was the modern-day version of the Evergreens Cemetery's Reed mausoleum. Mr. Wegielski, who passed away in 2010, would make regular visits to Woodlawn

every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, both to care for the site and to spend time with the spirit of his dead wife.

''A lot of people say, why do you have to go down to the cemetery three times a week?'' he said. ''This seems to relieve me. I come down, I don't bother anybody, I sit down, I bring soda with me, oranges, whatever. I have lunch with her.''

When the season calls for it, he decorates. Last Christmas, in addition to two ornamented trees, he installed a talking wreath on the door of the mausoleum, so that passers-by who triggered a motion detector were greeted with a hearty ''Merry Christmas.'' One security guard, on night patrol on the pitch-black grounds, was so startled he pulled out his gun. Daytime visitors were alternately spooked and delighted.
There's a beautiful twist at the end of the NY Times's 2003 account of their relationship, from which I've quoted above. Take a read!

Day 489

David Miller

May 2nd, 2013


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The End of the Day

May 2nd, 2013



That's the name of this Sally Farnham sculpture marking the graves of Vernon and Irene Castle, a famous ballroom dancing duo who starred in 1914's Watch Your Step, the first Broadway show written by Irving Berlin, a fellow Woodlawner. The Castles' time together was cut short, however, when Vernon, a captain in the British Army's Royal Flying Corps, died in a plane crash while training an American cadet in Texas during World War I.

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and their butterfly companions

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Oy

May 2nd, 2013



When I spotted this mausoleum, there was a worker inside cleaning it. I didn't want to take him by surprise, so I said hi and told him I was going to snap a photo.

Him: No, you can't do that.
Me: I can't?
Him: I don't think you can take a picture of an open one without permission.
Me: Oh, that's OK. I'll just get the top part here.
Him: [Stepping outside and looking up] Ah, you want a picture of the Schmuck, huh?
Me: Well, let's not cast aspersions on the character of the dead [is what I wish I had said].

Day 489

One among many

May 2nd, 2013



Here lies Robert Moses, one of the most controversial characters in the history of New York. This might seem like a surprisingly modest resting place for a man of such power and influence, but who needs a silly little mausoleum when you've built yourself a monument out of the entire city?

Day 489

Community mausoleum

May 2nd, 2013



I believe this is the building whose construction prompted Leona Helmsley to sue Woodlawn and move her husband's remains up to a new $1.4-million mausoleum in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Day 489




Mama Schaaf.

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Frankie Frisch

May 2nd, 2013



The Fordham Flash, once again

Day 489

Austin Corbin

May 2nd, 2013



Railroad tycoon, developer of Manhattan Beach, and president of the American Society for the Suppression of the Jews — wait, strike that last one.

Day 489

Jay Gould

May 2nd, 2013



The "fabled robber baron", entombed inside a mausoleum modeled after the Maison Carrée

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This was originally the Methodist Episcopal Church of Woodlawn Heights. Take a look at the battlements on top of the building; are those chutes for pouring boiling liquids on the heads of invading Presbyterians?

Day 489




Each manhole cover commemorates one of the 23 workers, almost all of them sandhogs, who have died thus far during the decades-long construction of Water Tunnel No. 3, the biggest public works project in the city's history. (There is a 24th death also associated with the project — a 12-year-old boy who fell down a 500-foot shaft while playing in a construction site.)




The plaque on this memorial at the edge of Van Cortlandt Park reads:

AUGUST 31, 1778.
UPON THIS FIELD,
CHIEF NIMHAM
AND SEVENTEEN STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS
AS ALLIES OF THE PATRIOTS,
GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR LIBERTY.

Day 489

Skinned

May 2nd, 2013



and de-treed




A good sign you're in Woodlawn (the neighborhood, not the cemetery)

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to the Woodlawn Heights War Memorial

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Tombstone Saloon

May 2nd, 2013



A fitting name

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Fort Knox RC Park

May 3rd, 2013



Looking a little better than last time we were here

Day 490




John Fuller gets the ol' sheet-of-printer-paper-in-an-upside-down-Ziploc-bag treatment:

JUNE 10, 2012

THIS RIVER BIRCH PLANTED IN
MEMORY OF PARK SUPERVISOR
JOHN FULLER FOR HIS SERVICE
IN NYC PARKS

Day 490

Bronx River arches

May 3rd, 2013


Day 490

Portal of the day

May 3rd, 2013



This feels like Super Mario Bros.

Day 490

Beautiful lettering

May 3rd, 2013



School of St. Ann in the Bronx

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Signs don’t lie

May 3rd, 2013



Skunk cabbage!

According to Wikipedia: "Skunk cabbage is notable for its ability to generate temperatures of up to 15-35°C (59-95°F) above air temperature by cyanide resistant cellular respiration in order to melt its way through frozen ground, placing it among a small group of plants exhibiting thermogenesis."

Here's an NY Times tribute to the generally unsung, if not always unsmelled, plant: "Seduced By a Skunk Cabbage".

Day 490




This little fenced-in crossing spans the Major Deegan Expressway in Yonkers, just outside the Bronx. The tree line visible to the left — the boundary of Van Cortlandt Park — marks the northern edge of New York City.

Day 490

Katonah Avenue

May 3rd, 2013



The commercial heart of Woodlawn, where the brogues are plentiful and the pubs are too

Day 490

Awesome mailbox #74

May 3rd, 2013