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Green-Wood Cemetery

Green-Wood Cemetery
2015 Green-Wood Cemetery Gate from inside.jpg
Richard M. Upjohn's Gothic revival northern entrance to the cemetery, built in 1861-65, has been a New York City landmark since 1966 (2015)
Location Brooklyn, New York City
Coordinates 40°39′08″N 73°59′28″W / 40.65222°N 73.99111°W / 40.65222; -73.99111Coordinates: 40°39′08″N 73°59′28″W / 40.65222°N 73.99111°W / 40.65222; -73.99111
Area 478 acres (1.9 km2)
Built 1838
Architect Cemetery: David Bates Douglass
Gates: Richard M. Upjohn
Chapel: Warren & Wetmore
Weir Greenhouse: G. Curtis Gillespie
NRHP Reference # 97000228
Significant dates
Added to NRHP March 8, 1997
Designated NHL September 20, 2006
Designated NYCL Gates: April 19, 1966
Weir Greenhouse: April 13, 1982
Fort Hamilton Parkway Gate & Green-Wood Cemetery Chapel: April 12, 2016

Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York. Like other early rural cemeteries, Green-Wood was founded in a time of rapid urbanization when churchyards in New York City were becoming overcrowded.

Located in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, the cemetery lies several blocks southwest of Prospect Park, between Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park. Paul Goldberger in The New York Times, wrote that it was said "it is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-Wood".

The gates of the cemetery were designated a New York City landmark in 1966, and the Weir Greenhouse, used as a visitor's center, in 1982. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 and was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Fort Hamilton Parkway Gate and the cemetery's chapel were designated as landmarks by New York City in 2016.

The popularity of Green-Wood Cemetery inspired a competition to design a "Central Park" for NYC. The winners were Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. It essentially inspired the creation of Central Park and Prospect Park.


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Wikipedia

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