and the sidewalk etrog vendors are plying their wares in Borough Park.
This almost entirely Jewish cemetery was founded by James Arlington Bennet, a member (though apparently not a sincere one) of the Mormon Church who was asked by Joseph Smith to be his running mate in the presidential election of 1844. But Bennet, a "wily Easterner", "saw the futility of that campaign and claimed to be constitutionally ineligible by reason of foreign birth. Believing that no one would buy books by an American author, Bennet had posed as Irish-born to further sales of his manual on bookkeeping even though his parents immigrated to America before his birth."
In 1887, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle recalled some more colorful details about the man:
His name was James Arlington Bennet, and he was always proud of the fact that there was only one "t" in his name, saying that all those with two of those consonants at the end of their name were Irish and informers. [The monument marking Bennet's grave here at the cemetery reads "BENNETT".] . . . Mr. Bennet always had an idea that he was an inventor, and to prove that his idea was correct he invented and made a pair of wings which, he said, if placed upon any one's shoulders would enable him to fly when and where he pleased. The villagers did not seem to have faith in the wing business, for none of them gave any signs of being willing to test the invention, so the old man became angry and went over to Castle Garden where he employed a native of Erin, ostensibly to work on a farm, but in reality to become famous by proving that the invention was a success. The stranger was not long enough in the village to become acquainted or get acclimatized before Mr. Bennet took him to the top of the cemetery office, where he fixed the wings to the shoulders of the new farm hand and said, "Fly or die," at the same time pointing a musket at the head of the Irish immigrant. Under such a condition of things the stranger thought it best to attempt to fly and he did so, but unfortunately in so doing he broke his neck.
Many of New York's cemeteries are running out of room, but Washington Cemetery is fully sold out, having already replaced all its roads with narrower footpaths to make room for more graves. Meanwhile, the owners of unused plots, now highly in demand, are selling them on the black market and raking in the dough.
Primarily found in the areas where new grave sites have been created (for example, where roads have been replaced with narrower footpaths to make room for more burials), headstones like these, laser-etched with a likeness of the deceased, are very popular among the Jews from the former Soviet Union who make up almost all of the new burials at Washington Cemetery. Most people are depicted as they looked in middle age or later, but some are instead represented by an image from their younger years. (On a related note, check out these incredible photos I found of some mobsters' tombstones in Russia and Ukraine.)
Mr. Kaplan wasn't a champion chess player, as I assumed; he was actually a grandmaster of a much more obscure game: pool checkers.
Unlike, say, Woodlawn, Washington Cemetery doesn't have any truly enormous mausoleums, but this one — the largest of the bunch — isn't too shabby.
Between my photo and this one, you can get a good sense of how unusual this house is.
In 2008 (the most recent information I could find), this 260-foot tower on the grounds of Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School was being used by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to broadcast The Clyde Frog Show, Religions of the World, Visualizing Cell Processes, and many other educational shows, as well as various programs for the 24-hour Prayer Channel.
Lining the eastern side of Prospect Park West between Prospect Avenue and Windsor Place are several memorial trees with plaques identical to those we've seen previously.
