Category: Graveyards

Ghostly Fiction in Sleepy Hollow

Nothing becomes October better than the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Even if you can’t make a performance of story teller Jonathan Kruk as he brings Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow alive, a walk through the graveyard…

Graveyards in October: Forgotten in Pleasantville?

The overgrowth of this graveyard in Pleasantville, N.Y. contrasts with its proximity to a well-traveled road. What was probably a peaceful resting place stands still as progress comes to it on a road named Broadway. Should we pretend not to…

History in the West Point Graveyard

We go to West Point to watch the football games, but we take a quick walk through the cemetery there on the way back to our car. Here are reminders of the real purpose of this place, and the outcomes…

Graveyard Art Westhampton: Earthly or Angelic

At Westhampton Cemetery, at Station Road and Montauk Highway in Westhampton, N.Y., I am struck by the contrast of artistic embellishments on old gravemarkers: corporeal skulls suggesting, to me, the deceased’s present existence, or smiling angels with wings, indicating the…

Graveyards in October: Sellecks Corners Cemetery

Need a reason to take a drive through Pound Ridge, N.Y.? Head to Sellecks Corners Cemetery at the corner of Barnegat Road and 124 right over the border in New Canaan, Conn. Marvel at the little Methodist church there that…

Life and Death at the Key West Cemetery

The Key West Cemetery is probably the first one I visit recreationally. No relatives of mine are there. I hesitate: Is this okay? Just going in to look? Appreciating the stillness, the spookiness, the peace, the quiet, the flowers? Is…

Remembering the Maine Far from Havana

Add the explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898 to the list of historical events I don’t know enough about. I would “remember the Maine” if only I could. I know the incident triggered the Spanish-American War.…