As I detailed in two previous blog posts (Part 1 and Part 2), the remains of three of my ancestors were once buried at Arlington Abbey Mausoleum in Arlington, Va. However, that site fell into disrepair decades ago and was subjected to vandalism and worse. When the Army Corps of Engineers tried to close the facility in the late 1990s, they couldn’t reach all of the families of those buried there. When I tried to find more information about my relatives, I learned that their remains were missing.

As I said in my last post, it appeared that one of three things had happened: 1) a family member removed my ancestors’ remains to another location during a time when records of such removals were not recorded; 2) the urns holding the remains were stolen or destroyed; 3) the remains were among a bunch of unmarked urns found scattered inside the mausoleum, with no way to trace them back to the crypts to which they belonged.

I’m happy to report that while discussing this mystery with my half-brother over the Thanksgiving holiday, we found the answer. In an old version of our father’s will (dated only a year after I was born), he stated that he had purchased a crypt at another facility for “ashes of deceased members of my family who bore the name Corley.”

I called that facility when I returned home Saturday afternoon. After giving them the names and dates of death of the missing ancestors, the facility called me back in short order to let me know that they indeed have their remains. I now have their exact location and I hope to visit the memorial park soon.

I’ve sent this information to the Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist who assisted me in my search for my missing ancestors. My hope is that now that we have found my relatives, this may help narrow down the possible identities of those remains found on the floor of the mausoleum.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

What would appear to be a Jewish section of the vast funerary complex that is 2nd and 3rd Calvary Cemeteries, is actually a distinct cemetery organized as and referred to as Mount Zion.

It made a convenient hiding spot for me one day when a group of children on Maurice Avenue took notice of me and began to follow me around. The possibility of some vaguely malign intention toward me, on their part, caused a near faint and I ran away- here’s what happened.

Narrow, juvenile faces, their appearance and aspect were dominated by a toothy grimace- much wider than the usual proportion- and oddly jowled chins. The corners of their mouths stretched to mid cheek and passed well beyond the bulging center point of those widely set and unblinking milky blue eyes- which I attribute to the possibly mutagenic qualities of the chemical pollution of that nearby extinction of hope called the Newtown Creek.

A little girl amongst them, barefoot and carrying a polydactyl calico which was buzzing with attention, pointed me out and all the other odd looking children turned and stared in my direction. A vast physical coward, and unable to withstand even the thought of defending myself against  a crowd of 10 year olds, your humble narrator screamed a shrill shriek and broke into a clumsy run to make an escape to hallowed ground.

from mountzioncemetery.com

Mount Zion Cemetery encompasses an area of 78 acres. This cemetery is located in Maspeth, Queens near the Manhattan Border. When this cemetery was first established the surrounding area was considered to be rural. There was an ongoing need for burial spaces to accommodate the explosion of the immigrant population in not only Queens, but also the nearby neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mount Zion Cemetery has more than 210,000 burials on its 78 acres making it one of the more interesting burial grounds.

note: Mount Zion has come up once before, in the shot above from a Newtown Pentacle post of June 22- called Newtown Grafiti

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Once within the iron gates of Mount Zion, I enacted an old Brooklyn “run away and hide from pursuers strategy” which basically boils down to running around at full speed in a completely random manner and finding something to hide behind or in. Luckily, the tightly packed environs of this Cemetery make for good cover, and I was dressed in a black fedora and black raincoat- making the perfect camouflage for blending in with other visitors at Mt. Zion.

Once, this panic stricken series of turns and circles was called “cheese it”, and the modern English would call it “Leg it”. I knew a guy who once fled from the cops through 4 blocks of brooklyn backyards, hopping a six foot chain link fence every 30 yards, ran across Flatbush, through a golf course, then ran across the Belt Parkway, and dug himself a sand dune hole to spend the night in near Plum Beach. Brooklyn thing.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

There are distinct sections in Mount Zion, organized by burial society. Jewish Burial Societies are usually connected either to a Temple Congregation or Secular Association. The Secular ones would often be organized by a labor union, or by a brokerage business that sought to buy a large number of plots at a discount and sell them at a profit. Much information is available online about these societies if one can read hebrew or yiddish. There is also a modern and ancient division.

Some parts of the place date back to the 19th century, others have fresh interments. Unlike other faiths represented nearby, Jewish tradition calls for a single occupant in a grave. As such, the organization and placement of funerary rite and remains demands much lateral sprawl, and like most older Jewish cemeteries- Mount Zion seems crowded and claustrophobic.

But, it’s a good place to hide from those weird Maspeth kids, if you lords and ladies of Newtown don’t mind- let’s just hang out here a little while- OK?

That little girl with the maladapted and curiously 9 toed cat, she said something to the oldest boy that sounded like a name… Y’ha-nthlei?

from wikipedia

A headstone (tombstone) is known as a matzevah (“monument”). Although there is no Halakhic obligation to hold an unveiling ceremony, the ritual became popular in many communities toward the end of the 19th century. There are varying customs about when it should be placed on the grave. Most communities have an unveiling ceremony a year after the death. Some communities have it earlier, even a week after the burial. In Israel it is done after the “sheloshim”, the first thirty days of mourning. There is no restriction about the timing, other than the unveiling cannot be held during certain periods such as Passover or Chol Ha’Moed.

At the end of the ceremony, a cloth or shroud covering that has been placed on the headstone is removed, customarily by close family members. Services include reading of several psalms (1, 23, 24, 103), Mourners Kaddish (if a minyan is available), and the prayer “El Malei Rachamim.” The service may include a brief eulogy for the deceased.

]]> http://kellydpalmer.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/spooky-and-beautiful-a-haunted-cemetery/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:07:28 +0000 kellydpalmer http://kellydpalmer.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/spooky-and-beautiful-a-haunted-cemetery/

Stepp Cemetery

Rules (333/365 11-29-2009)

Originally uploaded by CarusoPhoto

I just had to revisit the north-western Illinois cemetery where I made the flower/garbage can photos last week. This time, the overcast day helped to create a very specific mood.

West Norwood Cemetery, London, originally uploaded by christopherlevy.

From the West Norwood Cemetery, in London, England: a lady with a starfish on her head.

The original photographer cites Wiki and notes that there is all kinds of controversy about this cemetery, including the fact that older (and historically-listed!) graves were removed to make room for new burials – craziness!!

Enjoy today’s photo! If you like the photo, please drop a comment to the original photographer at Flickr.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Looming, in this place, is the megapolis. Here lies Tammany, gazing eternally upon their work. The city. The great city.

The greatest and last of their projects is promontory above the shield wall of Manhattan, a familiar vista of Calvary Cemetery offered as an iconic representation by most.

The tower called the Empire State building was built, almost as an act of pure will, by a former newsboy from South Street.

from wikipedia

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

The people buried here arrived in and encountered a very different city- a divergent concept of a city- than the one we imagine. They were fleeing religious war and famine, and even the hazardous journey to an unknown country was better than staying where they were. The first surge of them was Catholic, they came from Poland, Germany, Italy, and like that newsboy from South Street - Ireland.

Especially Ireland.

(the Jews were present as well, but were subsumed by larger descriptions of nationality, and they would describe themselves as Germans or Poles before bringing up religion)

Before the Civil War, New York was ruled by the “knickerbockracy“, a social elite who were labeled “the 400″ by Samuel Ward MacAllister. Greedy poor and useless, immigrant mouths to feed were dumped by the courts of Europe on New York’s docks, where they instantly took to crime and profligacy. The dregs arrived like ocean waves, and the disgusted Anglophile and Dutch elites saw to it that these wretched masses would be excluded from power and opportunity in the protestant republic.

also from wikipedia

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis. Every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its role as predecessor to the Empire State Building. The building was designed from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Ethnic associations formed amongst the new immigrants, who were victimized by discriminatory policies of government and racial prejudice. One of these ethnic clubs began political organization amongst the immigrant grass roots, and registered voters began to appear in the river front slums, and especially in the Five Points in Manhattan.

from wikipedia

Tammany Hall (Founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society, and also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order), was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O’Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a “fusion” ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Impeachable offense was just part of doing business back then, and the ethnic associations could muster significant and reliable turnouts on election day for whoever was willing to pay. Soon, the associations began to congeal into ethnic blocks. The largest one of them all was called Tammany Hall, and it began to pick its own people to run for office instead of supporting the landed gentry or the degenerate Dutch.

also from wikipedia

Despite occasional defeats, Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper; it continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker, Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

In 1901, anti-Tammany forces elected a reformer, Republican Seth Low, to become mayor. From 1902 until his death in 1924, Charles Francis Murphy was Tammany’s boss. In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold. The new building on East 17th Street and Union Square East was finished and occupied by 1929.[6] In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello La Guardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany’s control. La Guardia was elected in 1933 and re-elected in 1937 and 1941. He was the first anti-Tammany Mayor to be re-elected and his extended tenure weakened Tammany in a way that previous “reform” Mayors had not.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

That boy from the South Street water front, who watched as the East River Bridge being built, lost his father at age 13. He left school and went to work, first at an oil company and later at the Fulton Fish Market- which netted him the astounding salary of $15 per week. He developed a certain celebrity in the 4th ward because of his good fortunes, and came to the attentions of the Tammany men, who discovered a certain “likeability” in him.

from pbs.org

Built during the Depression between 1930 and 1931, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest office building — surpassing the Chrysler Building by a whopping 204 feet. The design of the building changed 16 times during planning and construction, but 3,000 workers completed the building’s construction in record time: one year and 45 days, including Sundays and holidays. The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

By 1895, the young man was appointed a clerk to the Commissioner of Jurors and was noticed by Thomas F. Foley- the boss of Tammany. Shortly, He was an assemblyman in Albany, and spent 12 years gathering patronage and clout in the capital of New York State. By 1913, he had become Speaker of the House and the most influential man in Albany. As a reward for his services, Tammany appointed him Sheriff of New York, a lucrative position in those days. By 1918, He was elected Governor of New York State and came to national prominence during his 4 terms in office.

In 1928 he ran for President of the United States, this Irish kid from South Street, and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored with placing his name before the convention. He lost to Herbert Hoover, whose many supporters publicly voiced concern about the Tammany contagion spreading into Washington and across the nation. In 1932, he lost the nomination of his party to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

from wikipedia

Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2,500 short tons (2,300 t) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.

The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation systems, and the later Independent Subway System, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge 1903 and the Manhattan Bridge 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world’s largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.

These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 mostly Italian and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city’s fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Disgusted with politics and betrayed by the last of the Knickerbocker elite, the newsboy governor turned to private business. Amongst other ventures, he became president of that company which would construct the Empire State Building at the height of the Great Depression. One or two of his friends also came in on the venture.

That iconic structure is located, incidentally, on the former site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel- a regular haunt and preferred meeting place for the elite “four hundred”.

from greatbuildings.com

The architectural, commercial, and popular success of the Empire State Building depended on a highly rationalized process, and equally efficient advertising and construction campaigns. Skillful designers of Manhattan office buildings, architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon were familiar with the imperatives of design and construction efficiency that maximized investors’ returns by filling the building with tenants as soon as possible. …

The Empire State Building, like most art deco skyscrapers, was modernistic, not modernist. It was deliberately less pure, more flamboyant and populist than European theory allowed. It appeared to be a sculpted or modeled mass, giving to business imagery a substantial character…

- photo by Mitch Waxman

As Governor, this Tammany man  rewrote the labor laws after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and, oversaw the creation of much of modern New York. As a private citizen, he used his extensive patronage and political muscle to build the Empire State Building in an astounding 410 days. President Herbert Hoover cut the ribbon on opening day, however.

His name was Alfred E. Smith. Al the happy warrior to his constituents.

Governor Smith died October 4, 1944 at 6:28 AM.

Click here to listen to a history.com audio file of Al Smith speaking “on New York”.

Click here to access a google map with the actual location of the monument, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the web.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

He lies in Calvary next to his wife, Catherine A. Dunn Smith.

Alongside them are those generations that came to a city -of wooden clapboard walls rising from unpaved roads – and died in a shining metropolis of glass and steel towers accomplished by their labors. The great city of the age was built by those that lie in Calvary Cemetery, here in the muladhara of the Newtown Pentacle.

note: the view of the Empire State Building, from the gravesite of Governor Smith, is obscured by more modern mausoleum monuments.

from alsmithfoundation.com

In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 – making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.

Governor Smith won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Looming, in this place, is the megapolis. Here lies Tammany, gazing eternally upon their work. The city. The great city.

The greatest and last of their projects is promontory above the shield wall of Manhattan, a familiar vista of Calvary Cemetery offered as an iconic representation by most.

The tower called the Empire State building was built, almost as an act of pure will, by a former newsboy from South Street.

from wikipedia

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

The people buried here arrived in and encountered a very different city- a divergent concept of a city- than the one we imagine. They were fleeing religious war and famine, and even the hazardous journey to an unknown country was better than staying where they were. The first surge of them was Catholic, they came from Poland, Germany, Italy, and like that newsboy from South Street - Ireland.

Especially Ireland.

(the Jews were present as well, but were subsumed by larger descriptions of nationality, and they would describe themselves as Germans or Poles before bringing up religion)

Before the Civil War, New York was ruled by the “knickerbockracy“, a social elite who were labeled “the 400″ by Samuel Ward MacAllister. Greedy poor and useless, immigrant mouths to feed were dumped by the courts of Europe on New York’s docks, where they instantly took to crime and profligacy. The dregs arrived like ocean waves, and the disgusted Anglophile and Dutch elites saw to it that these wretched masses would be excluded from power and opportunity in the protestant republic.

also from wikipedia

The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis. Every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its role as predecessor to the Empire State Building. The building was designed from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Ethnic associations formed amongst the new immigrants, who were victimized by discriminatory policies of government and racial prejudice. One of these ethnic clubs began political organization amongst the immigrant grass roots, and registered voters began to appear in the river front slums, and especially in the Five Points in Manhattan.

from wikipedia

Tammany Hall (Founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society, and also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order), was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O’Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a “fusion” ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Impeachable offense was just part of doing business back then, and the ethnic associations could muster significant and reliable turnouts on election day for whoever was willing to pay. Soon, the associations began to congeal into ethnic blocks. The largest one of them all was called Tammany Hall, and it began to pick its own people to run for office instead of supporting the landed gentry or the degenerate Dutch.

also from wikipedia

Despite occasional defeats, Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper; it continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker, Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.

In 1901, anti-Tammany forces elected a reformer, Republican Seth Low, to become mayor. From 1902 until his death in 1924, Charles Francis Murphy was Tammany’s boss. In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold. The new building on East 17th Street and Union Square East was finished and occupied by 1929.[6] In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello La Guardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany’s control. La Guardia was elected in 1933 and re-elected in 1937 and 1941. He was the first anti-Tammany Mayor to be re-elected and his extended tenure weakened Tammany in a way that previous “reform” Mayors had not.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

That boy from the South Street water front, who watched as the East River Bridge being built, lost his father at age 13. He left school and went to work, first at an oil company and later at the Fulton Fish Market- which netted him the astounding salary of $15 per week. He developed a certain celebrity in the 4th ward because of his good fortunes, and came to the attentions of the Tammany men, who discovered a certain “likeability” in him.

from pbs.org

Built during the Depression between 1930 and 1931, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest office building — surpassing the Chrysler Building by a whopping 204 feet. The design of the building changed 16 times during planning and construction, but 3,000 workers completed the building’s construction in record time: one year and 45 days, including Sundays and holidays. The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

By 1895, the young man was appointed a clerk to the Commissioner of Jurors and was noticed by Thomas F. Foley- the boss of Tammany. Shortly, He was an assemblyman in Albany, and spent 12 years gathering patronage and clout in the capital of New York State. By 1913, he had become Speaker of the House and the most influential man in Albany. As a reward for his services, Tammany appointed him Sheriff of New York, a lucrative position in those days. By 1918, He was elected Governor of New York State and came to national prominence during his 4 terms in office.

In 1928 he ran for President of the United States, this Irish kid from South Street, and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored with placing his name before the convention. He lost to Herbert Hoover, whose many supporters publicly voiced concern about the Tammany contagion spreading into Washington and across the nation. In 1932, he lost the nomination of his party to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

from wikipedia

Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2,500 short tons (2,300 t) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.

The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation systems, and the later Independent Subway System, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge 1903 and the Manhattan Bridge 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world’s largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.

These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 mostly Italian and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city’s fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Disgusted with politics and betrayed by the last of the Knickerbocker elite, the newsboy governor turned to private business. Amongst other ventures, he became president of that company which would construct the Empire State Building at the height of the Great Depression. One or two of his friends also came in on the venture.

That iconic structure is located, incidentally, on the former site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel- a regular haunt and preferred meeting place for the elite “four hundred”.

from greatbuildings.com

The architectural, commercial, and popular success of the Empire State Building depended on a highly rationalized process, and equally efficient advertising and construction campaigns. Skillful designers of Manhattan office buildings, architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon were familiar with the imperatives of design and construction efficiency that maximized investors’ returns by filling the building with tenants as soon as possible. …

The Empire State Building, like most art deco skyscrapers, was modernistic, not modernist. It was deliberately less pure, more flamboyant and populist than European theory allowed. It appeared to be a sculpted or modeled mass, giving to business imagery a substantial character…

- photo by Mitch Waxman

As Governor, this Tammany man  rewrote the labor laws after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and, oversaw the creation of much of modern New York. As a private citizen, he used his extensive patronage and political muscle to build the Empire State Building in an astounding 410 days. President Herbert Hoover cut the ribbon on opening day, however.

His name was Alfred E. Smith. Al the happy warrior to his constituents.

Governor Smith died October 4, 1944 at 6:28 AM.

Click here to listen to a history.com audio file of Al Smith speaking “on New York”.

Click here to access a google map with the actual location of the monument, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the web.

- photo by Mitch Waxman

He lies in Calvary next to his wife, Catherine A. Dunn Smith.

Alongside them are those generations that came to a city -of wooden clapboard walls rising from unpaved roads – and died in a shining metropolis of glass and steel towers accomplished by their labors. The great city of the age was built by those that lie in Calvary Cemetery, here in the muladhara of the Newtown Pentacle.

note: the view of the Empire State Building, from the gravesite of Governor Smith, is obscured by more modern mausoleum monuments.

from alsmithfoundation.com

In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 – making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.

Governor Smith won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.

My family and I serendipitously stumbled upon Trinity Church today in New York City. My mother loves walking through old cemeteries, so we stopped for a visit.

Wandering through these cemeteries, the old ones, gives me a sense of peace and a sense of perspective. These antique tombstones were custom made, and most have inscribed upon them undying confidence in eternal Life with Jesus.
For many of these people, all that remains to mark their life on earth is a simple tombstone in the churchyard. Those tombstones that proclaim their ultimate faith in Christ are all that I can use to recreate their life in my mind. I see groups of people living in New York before the Revolution, living each day with faces turned to God and hands doing His great work. Dying was just walking through the doorway that they had been approaching all their lives.

Many of the headstones are so old that nothing remains but the stone itself. No name, no date, no epitaph to identify the skull buried under it. The only clue to the person’s life is that he or she chose to be buried or had a family member choose to bury him or her at Trinity Church in New York City. What a reminder that, though many of our obligations and duties may be worthwhile, the choice for or against Jesus is the one that matters for eternity.

The memorial for Augusta Egleston particularly touched me.

“She was not ashamed to confess the
faith of Christ crucified, and manfully
fought under His banner against
sin, the world, and the devil,
and continued Christ’s
faithful soldier and servant
until her life’s end.”

What an honor. I strive to make those words true about my own life.

I also love what is said on the tombstone of William Bradford.

“… and being quite worn out,
with Old age and labour , he left his
mortal State in the lively Hope of a
blessed Immortality.
Reader reflect how soon you’ll quit this Stage.
You’ll find but few atain to such an Age.
Life full of Pain. Lo here’s a Place of Rest.
Prepare to meet your GOD, then you are blest.”

I especially love the phrase, “and, being quite worn out, … he left his mortal state in the lively Hope of a blessed immortality.” I read it in a very happy, light tone, as if the writer is stating something like, “And, being quite hungry, he went to the kitchen for a bit of cake.” It also sounds like Enoch, who walked with the Lord and simply was no more.  Death was nothing to be feared.
How beautiful a picture of who Christ is! From the dawn of consciousness, humans have worried about death. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest recorded human story, follows Gilgamesh as he travels to the ends of the earth to find a cure for death, and subsequent literature has only continued to attempt to make sense of death. The idea revolts us. We know innately that we are meant for eternity, yet to so many people death appears to be the end of it all.
Yet Christ is Life! He comes to bring us Life, and what abundant Life it is! For His followers, death has no sting. We walk through Hades’ now-broken adamantine gates and into the arms of our souls’ One True Love. Instead of the fearful spectre that has haunted the human race for thousands of years, death is simply the gateway to True Life. Like the infant emerging from the darkness of the womb into the world, death allows us to “shuffle off this mortal coil” and proceed into true Life.

I know that when, like these tombstones, all record of my life on earth has been eroded away, my Life will be hid with Christ on high. Amen.

Está siendo un fin de semana increible.

Ayer fue un dia mas o menos light en la uni, y hubo muchas risas comiendo con Eli, Raúl, Fabián y Miguel Ángel en la pizzería del campus. Cuando llegué a casa a las 6 me puse a vaguear un poco y a ver “The cleaner” de Samuel L. Jackson. Después de cenar y ducharme estuve viendo con Fabián y Pico “Unglourious Basterds” (si aún no la habeis visto no se a qué esperais – peliculón de Quentin Tarantino, que está loco, se le va la pinza en las películas). A la 1 o asi me fui a la cama después de la llamada de Juan al movil desde la cena de empresa de Nokia, contándome que había tenido que hacer un truco de magia delante de todos los supervisores y que ahora estaban todos borrachísimos después de beber unos 20 chupitos durante la cena (están locos estos ingenieros daneses).

Hoy después de dormir 11 horas, hemos cogido las bicis y nos hemos ido al otro lado de fiordo, a Lindholm, a visitar un cementerio vikingo (guapísimo). Realmente no son más que elipses de piedra en una colina, pero esta guay saber que ahi incineraban a los vikingos en la antigüedad.

Lindholm Høje Viking Cemetery

I was there!!

Viking tomb

Viking sunset

El cementerio estaba lleno de cabras vikingas (ver video):

De la que volvíamos hemos parado en el mercadillo navideño del centro. Muy entrañable todo. Y nos han dado hot vine y cookies gratis. Hemos visto a Santa Claus y nos hemos hecho una foto en su casa.

Aalborg Christmas Market

Santa Claus

Sitting in Santa Claus' Chair

Ahora por la noche tenemos cena en casa (chorizo, chistorra, huevos fritos y patatas al horno con cebolla y pimiento, ñam ñam).

Por la noche me tocará trabajar, que mañana tenemos que mandar un email con los avances del proyecto al supervisor y hoy no he hecho nada, y quiero tener el día libre mañana: Barça-Madrid!!

A ver que hace el Oviedín hoy!! Esta siendo un gran fin de semana, asi que si ganan el Oviedo y el Barça puede ser espectacular!!!

 

18 días para volver a casa por navidad!!

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