I’ve gotten a schedule from the tour guide at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, and want to go on Tour No. 5, on Sunday, May 18, at 1:00. Among the people whose tombs we will see are Peter Cooper, the famous Civil War drummer boy, and silent-movie star Florence LaBadie (the reason I want to go on this tour, as I’ve written about her).
Anyone interested in coming? It’s about a two-hour stroll, easy hills and lots of pausing to look at gorgeous Victorian statuary.
We’re out. Acrylic Vessel will be graduating college that weekend, so we’ll be celebrating in PA.
Have fun, y’all.
I’m guessing you mean 1pm not 1am.
Cemetaries are no fun during the daylight 
Can I bring my wooden stake?
Ah, you don’t need to take no tour.
Now that Green-Wood’s running out of room to plant new stiffs, they’ve realized they need to welcome wandering necrophiles, like Woodlawn up in the Bronx has been doing for years.
You walk in the 1850s Gothic main gates at 20th Street and Fifth Avenue (look for the red-and-yellow parrots who’ve been nesting among the bells for the past 20 years), step into the office, and they’re actually PLEASANT TO YOU, something that never happened ten or twelve years ago. They used to look at me like I’d arrived to kick over tombstones. They have a computer where you can look up individual plots, and they’ll even sell you guidebooks for walking tours, cheap.
Or you can try to dig up (ha ha) a copy of PERMANENT NEW YORKERS on BiblioFind.
Don’t miss the Morello-Volta tomb, with its ghastly 15-foot-tall mourning bride.
And say hi to Lola Montez, Bugs Moran, and Horace Greeley for me.
Dang it! I wanna go!
I love to tour old cemeteries, especially in the spring. Besides, not many “famous” people buried in Alabama. I did find Sun Ra’s grave in Birmingham though.
Can I come even though you don’t know me? I love graveyards!
You betcha!
Ike, you know how big Green-Wood is? Can you really see a bunch of Dopers wandering around for days and days till our bleached bones are finally found behuind some bushes? Nah, I’ll take one of the guided tours . . . Besides, I gotta find Flo LaBadie.
Sure I know…the northern border’s only about twenty blocks south of me. On a clear day, when the wind’s in the right direction, you can enjoy the bewitching aroma of the crematorium.
Looking for Flo LaBadie in a graveyard with Eve! That’s the best offer I’ve had all week. Sign me up.
I’ve got two gals from work and two non-Doper friends signed up, too. Hope it doesn’t rain! (Or snow, the way this year’s been)
That’s my wedding anniversary…I don’t think I’ll be able to talk the missus into a trip to NYC to romantically stroll through a Brooklyn graveyard.
I’m in.
Sign me up. I’ve been a tombstone tourist for years. Have to get the kinks worked out of the new camera by then, though.
Ooh! Ooh! Me me me! Can’t wait!
I hoped to bring the Fabulous Boyfriend, but he’ll be in Korea. (He is glad that y’all will be keeping me out of trouble in his absence, which makes me wonder if he’s been paying attention.)
I’ll try to make it, even though I think I’ve done #5 before. Twist my arm and I’ll regale you all with the story of the Battle of Brooklyn when we all retire for a tall, cold egg cream after the cemetery tour.
You couldn’t make it April 18th instead of May? 'Cause I’m going to be in NY April 18th. And somehow traipsing through the dead with you strikes me as an entertaining afternoon.
Hmmm…my Big Book of Death says in addition to Peter Cooper and Florence LeBadie, the cemetary features (would that be the word?) Boss Tweed, Eberhart Faber, Lola Montez (!), Horace Greeley (who apparently didn’t make it West), and an Indian Princess named Do-Hum-Me (no, really) who became the toast of New York in 1843 when she married Cow-Hick-Kee (no, really)…and then died.
And be sure to look for John Mattews whose monument won “Best Mortuary Art” in 1870.
Well, see, betenoir (by the way, “Betty Noir” would be a great drag name), there are five tours, as the cemetery is about the size of Connecticut. I particularly want to do Tour No. 5, which is only being given on May 18, as that’s the one that passes by Miss LaBadie—there’s a chapter on her in one of my books, and I really want to visit her grave and drop her a flower.
Wanna hear something weird?
I may be in the Big Apple next month around that time for work.
May I have a tentative reservation for grave-stomping?
Wow, I might actually meet Uke and Eve!
Just got confirmation that the business trip is scheduled for May 21, so I’ll miss the tour.