The Art, Architecture and Residents of Woodlawn Cemetery

Please RSVP only if you truly intend to come. Please alter your RSVP as soon as you know you will not. Please read this description 3 or 4 times before asking questions.

Led by Ellen Fleishman and Lynn Hamlin who entered this as a Shorewalkers “Suggest A Walk”

Established in 1863, Woodlawn Cemetery has been called “a popular final resting place for the famous and powerful”. It is a 400-acre non-sectarian cemetery —with over 310,000 individuals interred on its grounds. Over 100,000 people visit from all over the world each year.
Notable residents include - Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Herman Melville, Dorothy Parker, JC Penny, Joseph Pulitzer. Nelly Bly and so many more.
But more than its residents is the artistic and architectural significance of how they chose to be remembered. Designed by some of the leading architects of the time including James Gamble Rogers; Carriere and Hastings; McKim, Mead and White to name a few.
Join us on a private 4+ mile walk and meet some of the permanent residents. They include important civic leaders, actors on the stage and screen, musicians, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, financiers, suffragists, artists, writers and publishers. Learn about their contributions to society and about the artists and architects that designed and built their forever homes.
Led by Woodlawn Docent Joanna Cohlan, she even holds the keys that unlock some of these Mausolea for a peak inside! Many include Tiffany windows and other artistic wonders. The highlight is the Mausoleum of philanthropist, socialite and suffragist Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.

We will spend about 4 hours walking the grounds of this Class 2 Arboretum which include some of the most important specimen trees in New York. There will be much commentary.
A National Historic Landmark as quoted by the Parks Department, “the cemetery is distinguished by memorials that represent the largest and finest collection of funerary art in the country.”
There is a $10. fee to cover the guide’s gratuity and a donation to the cemetery payable at the event’s start.
There are restrooms in the cemetery. No eating is permitted. You may bring lunch and snacks to consume when we leave. There are few restaurants nearby. Of course, water is encouraged.
Ellen Fleishman 917 734 7813