Natural Beauty In Green-Wood Cemetery

Photographs Of Green-Wood Cemetery & Nature

Late autumn at Green-Wood Cemetery

Besides the tombstones, monuments and mausoleums in Green-Wood Cemetery there is an abundance of natural beauty.

These photographs were taken over the past few years. (click on any to enlarge.)Many of the plantings near the old monuments and obelisks are carefully cultivated.

Other bucolic views have developed naturally over 170 years.

William Williams elaborate Celtic cross is behind these flowers.

A lonely winter scene in which Stephen Whitney’s large mausoleum dominates the top of the hill.

Two roads converge here and a tree canopy forms a natural tunnel.

When the trees are in bloom, it is an amazing sight.

Many of the roadways are lined with trees like this.

A setting fit for eternity.

Some trees have magnificent colors and some remain a luxurious green.

Other trees almost overwhelm their surroundings. This immense tree near the Morgan mausoleum has huge roots.

One of the widest and probably oldest trees in all of Brooklyn.

Hidden within a grove of trees, you will find the North family monuments. The interior of this set of trees gets as dense as a forest.

This may be one the strangest photographs I’ve ever taken. Look at the trunk just above the lower branches that are sticking out. I see a face: eyes, nose, mustache, mouth.  Actually the whole tree resembles a man with his arms spread. It’s like something out of the Wizard of Oz. Does this mean I suffer from pareidolia or do you see it too?

Nature always wins. Before this tree was cut down it was enveloping and moving a tombstone out of its path.

On the other hand the Graydon memorial is protected by a tree.

In remote parts of the cemetery, especially on steep hills, vines will attach themselves to tombstones and mausoleums.

 

From a distance this unique memorial looks very lifelike, if people were green that is. When you get up close, you see the amazing detail put into this statue. Someone placed a real flower in the statue’s hand.

Wildlife can be seen throughout the cemetery.

This bird landed for a rest in a convenient spot.

Other animals are not as transient. Look closely at the base of John Green’s monument and emerging from a hole was this fellow. The hole was rather large and went under the entire monument, so it was probably the home of more than just this one woodchuck.

A reminder that this is a cemetery and the end eventually comes to all. This raccoon died in front of the sealed entrance to John Whitehead’s mausoleum.

2 thoughts on “Natural Beauty In Green-Wood Cemetery

  1. Daniel

    This cemetary looks eerily, (heh), like the one my family used to live across the street from, in Worcester, MA.

    Reply

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