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Time capsule discovered in historic Green-Wood cemetery (Brooklyn NY)
NY Daily News ^ | January 23, 2013 | REUVEN BLAU

Posted on 01/26/2013 7:41:36 AM PST by NYer


	Retired Brooklyn College professor Anthony Cucchiara

Retired Brooklyn College professor Anthony Cucchiara

There are more than just dead bodies buried in Green-Wood cemetery.

A construction worker last week discovered a time capsule filled with historic books hidden inside a wall of the landmark cemetery’s crematorium.

The weathered metal box entitled “Green-Wood 1838-1954” was likely squirreled away in the wall in 1954 and included six books detailing the history of the 478-acre cemetery.

“It's exciting to know that people in 1954 wanted to leave something in terms of the cemetery legacy for us to find,” said cemetery historian Jeff Richman.

Retired Brooklyn College Professor Anthony Cucchiara, an expert in water damaged artifacts, ordered cemetery staff to freeze the books in an attempt to keep them from fading further.

But the pages were totally ruined by years of rain water that seeped into the box and through the plastic covering inside.

CAPSULE_3_WEB

One of the books found in time capsule.

“The paper was essentially pulp,” said Richman, who gives weekly tours of the cemetery.

The books were likely stashed away by cemetery workers who were photographed inserting the capsule. Photos of that event were found in archives years ago, but officials didn’t know the exact locatiion of the capsule.

News of the capsule was first reported by DNAinfo.com.

The books included a copy of “A Handbook for Green-Wood” by the Nehmiah Cleaveland, the cemetery's first historian, published in 1867, and "Green-Wood Illustrated" by the same author published in 1847.

The cemetery has good copies of both tomes and will likely toss the rain ravished ones, but plans to keep the metal box, Richman said.

The Sunset Park graveyard, the final resting place of William “Boss” Tweed, Samuel Morse and Horace Greeley, was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy.

Scores of trees came crashing down onto historic monuments and headstones, causing more than $500,000 in damage.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: cemetery; godsgravesglyphs; history; newyork

1 posted on 01/26/2013 7:41:49 AM PST by NYer
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To: SunkenCiv

Main Entrance to Greenwood Cemetery

stablished in 1838 as a rural cemetery, Green-Wood Cemetery has been a home to numerous distinguished individuals and families, including the “Father of American Embalming”, Dr. Auguste Renouard, politicians, civil war generals, poets, artists, and other prominent society figures. It is also a very scenic and beautiful area.

The Green-Wood Cemetery covers 427 acres of land. It was, according to its description in the National Historic Landmark listing, the most varied and largest rural cemeteries in the country. It was designated as a part of the prestigious list in 2006.

2 posted on 01/26/2013 7:43:27 AM PST by NYer ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." --Jeremiah 1:5)
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To: NYer

3 posted on 01/26/2013 7:44:55 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: NYer
But the pages were totally ruined by years of rain water that seeped into the box and through the plastic covering inside.

They should have put it into a vacuum sealed food saver bag.....

4 posted on 01/26/2013 7:46:52 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (Jab her with a harpoon or just throw her from the train......)
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To: All

Pierrepont Family Memorial, Green-Wood Cemetery

Henry Evelyn Pierrepont was known as the “first citizen” of Brooklyn for good reason. He, along with his father Hezekiah B. and mother Anna Maria before him, played a significant role in the planning of Brooklyn as a physical city, its crucial ferry services to New York, and the establishment of Green-Wood Cemetery itself. He is considered by some to be one of the first “city planners” in the United States, a logical evolution from his father’s status as the first important suburban (Brooklyn Heights) real-estate developer in American History. Pierrepont Street in the Heights commemorates the family to this day.

5 posted on 01/26/2013 7:46:52 AM PST by NYer ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." --Jeremiah 1:5)
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To: Joe 6-pack

6 posted on 01/26/2013 7:49:49 AM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: All


7 posted on 01/26/2013 7:51:55 AM PST by NYer ("Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." --Jeremiah 1:5)
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To: NYer
This cemetery was featured in the movie "Gangs of New York." Some of the characters in the movie were based on people buried there.


8 posted on 01/26/2013 8:17:44 AM PST by Charles Henrickson (Brooklyn Lodgers)
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To: NYer
Henry Evelyn Pierrepont was known as the “first citizen” of Brooklyn for good reason.

On August 28, 1961, I stayed in the Pierrepont Hotel, which was almost certainly named after him, in Brooklyn Heights. I read a few years ago that the building still stands, but it now houses permanent residents. While it was a hotel, its guests included Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río, who stayed there while traveling to Mexico City to murder Leon Trotsky in 1940.

9 posted on 01/26/2013 8:43:02 AM PST by Fiji Hill (Io Triumphe!)
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To: NYer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsROL4Kf8QY

Oh yea


10 posted on 01/26/2013 8:47:37 AM PST by South Dakota (shut up and build a bakken pipe line)
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To: NYer

What a gorgeous place and interesting history. My paternal grandparents are buried at Kensico Cemetary in Valhalla, about 40 miles north of Green-Wood. It is just gorgeous up there.

Too bad amateurs who make up time capsules don’t often think about the destruction by infiltrating water. A welded-shut stainless steel cannister with a nitrogen blanket should do the trick.


11 posted on 01/26/2013 12:32:40 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: NYer

A time capsule from 1954? Hell, the people who buried it are pobably still alive.


12 posted on 01/26/2013 1:08:38 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: NYer

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks NYer. Too bad they didn't use Tupperware.

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


13 posted on 02/03/2013 10:09:30 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Hot Tabasco; SunkenCiv
hey should have put it into a vacuum sealed food saver bag.....

Or just leave it on a nice dry shelf.

14 posted on 02/05/2013 5:50:46 PM PST by colorado tanker
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