In Memoriam: 10 Much Mourned Brooklyn Institutions
Greenwood Cemetery Picnics
Speaking of death and life and nostalgia and permanence, let’s talk for a minute about Greenwood Cemetery. Obviously, Greenwood Cemetery is still standing strong, just like it has been for 175 years. Greenwood is the final resting places of many prominent New Yorkers, including but not limited to, Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and William “Bill the Butcher” Poole. And, of course, Greenwood is still a destination for anyone who likes to enjoy leisurely strolls along winding paths set amid beautifully manicured rolling hills. But. Back in the 19th-century, Greenwood wasn’t just a place to stroll or to visit on a 2nd-grade class field trip. No, back in the 19th-century, Greenwood was “the second most-visited tourist destination in New York behind the Niagara Falls.” Which, wow. And in case you’re wondering why a cemetery would be so popular and what it is exactly that I’m lamenting, it’s this—back then, people used to go to Greenwood to have picnics. New Yorkers would spend the day in Greenwood in the same way that they now enjoy Prospect Park. Those days are over. It would definitely be considered disrespectful now to pack a picnic lunch and hang out in Greenwood Cemetery. Also, back then, there was no Prospect Park. Or Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Or McCarren Park. There was only Greenwood. So, while it still exists, it’s changed. And I can’t help but wish I’d been around in its heyday and been one of the hundreds of thousands of people who descended upon Greenwood to escape the the latest smallpox outbreak in Manhattan. But it’s too late for that now. That time is over. I have to picnic elsewhere. Not Prospect Park, of course, because that got ruined by Googa Mooga. But I’ll figure something out. I hope.