Having just visited my 150th cemetery/memorial site in just over 3 years, I thought it might be interesting to look at the overall numbers of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen. Just sorting through the numbers have given me a few surprises – I didn’t realise Continue reading “Cemetery Roundup 2015-2018”
I was living in Japan when the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened. I was already in bed when I got a couple of texts from my friends – something about the WTC in NYC – I was sleepy and wasn’t sure what they were getting on about; it wasn’t until I went to Continue reading “Site 143: 9/11 Memorials”
With the price of real estate in Manhattan, it’s no wonder that there are very few cemeteries on the island, with most of the large ones out in the other boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The handful that do remain tend Continue reading “Site 142: St. Paul’s Chapel’s Churchyard”
When one thinks of grand New York city cemeteries, the first that will come to mind is Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. It’s definitely the most famous and well-known, not just to taphophiles and the writers of “best of” cemetery lists, but to the local Continue reading “Site 141: The Bronx’s Woodlawn Cemetery”
Many years ago when I did my first Masters (in History) I wrote a major paper on Toronto cemeteries. As part of my research, I read a lot about the rural/garden cemetery movement in both Europe and the U.S., which had multiple intended purposes – Continue reading “Site 140: Jersey City’s Harsimus Cemetery”
I woke up this morning to dull, grey skies, and I think that’s what I can expect for the rest of my time in New York. Yesterday’s scorching hot sunny day was probably the last I’ll see in a while. I had hoped to get up early and visit at least one cemetery in the Continue reading “Sites 138 and 139: Sleepy Hollow Cemeteries”
If you love monumental cemeteries as I do, this is definitely one for the bucket list. It ticks off the boxes for so many different types of cemetery explorers: those who love grand structures, statues, the graves of famous people, beautiful landscape design, etc. Continue reading “Site 137: Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery”
This was both the first, and the last, cemetery that I visited in Boston. It’s also the cemetery that I didn’t really visit at all, as every time I went the gates were locked. Despite being in the Boston Common with hundreds of people all around, Continue reading “Site 136: Boston’s Central Burying Ground”
The third cemetery I visited on the Freedom Trail was also the third one built in Boston. This one was quite famous – it had open-top tour buses stopping outside with a tour guide explaining who was buried within (nobody got off the bus to actually come Continue reading “Site 135: Boston’s Granary Burying Ground”
A few blocks south of Copp’s Hill Burying Ground lies another cemetery on the Freedom Trail, the King’s Chapel Burying Ground. This was the first cemetery established in the city of Boston and it dates back to 1630. Nearly five decades later, King’s Chapel Continue reading “Site 134: Boston’s King’s Chapel Burying Ground”
Any visitor to Boston will quickly learn about the Freedom Trail, a path you can follow through the centre of Boston that connects various sites related to Boston’s involvement in the Revolution and the subsequent founding of the United States. There Continue reading “Site 133: Boston’s Copp’s Hill Cemetery”
At the corner of Harvard Square, a quiet green area lies oblivious to the thousands of students and other passersby making their way to classes and job interviews in the streets beyond. This is Cambridge’s Old Burial Ground, established in 1635 just Continue reading “Site 132: Cambridge’s Old Burial Ground”
Mount Auburn, located not too far from Harvard University, has the distinction of being the first rural cemetery created in the United States. Like Europe in the early 19th century, increasing urbanization in the US meant the need for larger cemeteries Continue reading “Site 131: Boston’s Mount Auburn Cemetery”
Salem’s Howard Street Cemetery doesn’t seem to get the same love as the Old Burying Point, despite the fact that it has a much darker history. The current location was probably just a field next to the old Salem dungeon during the witch trial hysteria, Continue reading “Site 130: Salem’s Howard Street Cemetery”
Salem, a town synonymous with witches, has completely leaned into its own mythology. That has both its benefits and disadvantages: on the one hand, the town has had to come to terms with what is, in fact, a dark stain on its past: the Salem witch trials. On the other Continue reading “Site 129: Salem’s The Old Point Burying Cemetery”
stone and dust 