New trends in Cemeteries

Sep 28

When Did Cemeteries Become Tourist Attractions and Hot-Date Spots?

It might sound macabre, but some of the country’s best-known cemeteries are actually also havens for nature-lovers, culture-hounds and even after-dark revelers

By Matthew Kronsberg

Sept. 27, 2024 12:43 pm ET

It was just after dark on a recent Friday the 13th, and I was sipping mezcal among the urns in a mausoleum in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Dissolute youth revisited? Nope. An adventure in experimental chamber opera. I had come to see “Morning//Mourning,” a work by Gelsey Bell staged in the cemetery’s catacombs. A date-night crowd of about 70 people had assembled first for preshow drinks and snacks. Jauntily holding a lantern aloft, organizer Andrew Ousley offered us a piece of advice before we set off into the dark. “Don’t pet the raccoons or skunks.”

A performance of ‘Morning//Mourning’ in Green-Wood Cemetery’s catacombs. Photo: Marcus McDonald for WSJ

I found the performance, inspired by Alan Weisman’s 2007 book ‘The World Without Us,’ surprisingly uplifting, given the setting and post-anthropocene subject matter. On the walk back, I met Tricia Blanchard, a director of development for an arts nonprofit, who was discussing with two companions whether some might find staging (and attending) the show in a cemetery disrespectful. “It feels a little odd. Or sweet,” she said. “But why not?”

The oddest thing perhaps? How unremarkable such an event in a cemetery has become. In recent years many cemeteries have taken on second lives as cultural and recreational destinations. Several, like Bellefontaine in St. Louis, Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Mass., and Green-Wood even have artists-in-residence—and not just the ones underground. “I don’t think anyone anticipated 25 years ago that cemeteries would be…not just encouraging visitors, but also doing all of these programs,” said Harry J. Weil, Green-Wood’s vice president of education and public programs.

Attendance at Green-Wood has doubled since 2016, with more than 500,000 visitors expected this year. The cemetery is even building a $34 million, 20,400-square-foot Education & Welcome Center. Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, which attracted 150,000 visitors last year, is constructing its own visitor center. A gift shop will sell merch like Burial Grounds Coffee.

While this might sound heretical, the idea of a cemetery as a place for both recreation and remembrance has a long history in the U.S. A pioneer, Mount Auburn opened as the country’s first “rural” cemetery in 1831, a place where smog-choked city dwellers could escape. (“Rural” in this case describes the bucolic landscaping, rather than the location.) Particularly in the Northeast, rural cemeteries offered accessible green space, often before any significant city parks were established.

Autumnal colors at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. Photo: Mount Auburn Cemetery

Cemeteries became smash-hits. In 1860, Green-Wood nearly rivaled Niagara Falls as the country’s most popular tourist attraction, according to the book “222 Cemeteries to See Before You Die,” by Loren Rhodes, who also runs CemeteryTravel.com. That same year, Laurel Hill cemetery in Philadelphia had to issue tickets to keep crowds in check.

The trend spread. Urban elites from the South and the Midwest visited these cemeteries and proposed similar burial sites in their cities, notes Joy Giguere in her book “Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-Century America.” The mobs weren’t constrained to genteel families in bustles and top hats. Many cemeteries, she writes, established strict rules for behavior, barring “horse racing, unattended children and any kind of flower-picking or vandalism.”

Rising interest in family genealogy has helped drive cemeteries’ current resurgence, says Rhodes. “It has encouraged a lot of people to visit the family grave. Once you start doing that, you might say, ‘Wow, this is a beautiful place. I wonder if other places are as beautiful as this?’”

A screening at Laurel Hill, a cemetery in Philadelphia. Photo: LAUREL HILL Cemetery

Often, they are. Many, like Indianapolis’s Crown Hill Cemetery, Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery and Green-Wood double as accredited arboreta, drawing both naturalists and wildlife. (My wife leads occasional mushroom walks at Green-Wood, where 550 species of fungi have been documented on the app iNaturalist.) Last year, Yelp users ranked Mount Auburn as the fourth best place in the country to view fall colors. Birders especially love cemeteries, where it can be easier to spot wildlife without the congestion of more-crowded parks.

At 6:30 a.m. on the Sunday after “Morning//Mourning,” I was back at the cemetery gates for “Birding in Peace” led by Rob Jett, an avid birder who has spotted over 200 species in the cemetery in more than 25 years of visiting. In a little over two hours, our group spotted more than a dozen species, including a kestrel causing havoc among the colony of monk parakeets who nest in the tower of the cemetery’s gothic entryway arch.

Spooky season kicks off a flurry of events at cemeteries. Oakland Cemetery drew 12,000 people for Day of the Dead celebrations last year, with food, music, dancing and displays of traditional altars. Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, which hosts the largest celebration outside of Mexico, expects 35,000 attendees this year, says the cemetery’s co-owner Yogu Kanthiah.

Chrysanthemum flowers in bloom at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Photo: Sean Diaz

Hollywood Forever also pioneered the now widely adopted idea of cemetery-as-cinema, screening films since 2002. When it started, it was a bit scandalous, says Rhodes, but the screenings have become something of a civic institution. The series is as eclectic as the cemetery’s permanent residents. One of the recent showings: “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” in honor of the late Paul Reubens.

Of course, star power has long been among the biggest draws of big-city resting places. Sheldon K. Goodman, a historian who gives tours of London’s cemeteries, calls them “museums of people.” Bellefontaine hosts several “Beer Barons” events each year with drinks and visits to the tombs of residents like Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch. The graves of Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and, for a younger generation, the rapper Pop Smoke are many peoples’ gateway to Green-Wood.

But it usually takes just one visit to realize that many cemeteries are as much for the living as the dead. As she walked through the dark after the show in Green-Wood, Blanchard mused: “I would love to be buried in a place where people were enjoying themselves.”

A Special (Round-Trip) Ticket to the Cemetery

Need extra motivation to visit a historic cemetery? These events might convince you.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.

The tradition of placing lit candles in cemeteries to remember loved ones is at the root of “Solstice: Reflections on Winter Light at Mount Auburn Cemetery” in Cambridge, Mass. Over the course of 11 nights in December, artist collective MASARY Studios creates sound and light installations around the cemetery’s trees, paths, chapels and crypts. MountAuburnSolstice.org

Aram Boghosian/Mount Auburn Cemetery

Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

The Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., hosts more than 200 events annually. Among its most popular is the Dead Man’s Run, a fundraising 5K race. Along with awards for speed, prizes are given for individual and team costumes. Kids and pets are also welcome to participate. Oct. 12, CongressionalCemetery.org

Laurel Hill, Philadelphia

Explore the east side of Philadelphia’s stunning Laurel Hill cemetery by flashlight during its annual Soul Crawl. Expert guides tell the stories of some of the most notable graves. At the end of the evening, gather by the fire pits for a warming drink, and pay respects to a pair of fictitious residents: Adrian Balboa and Paulie Pennino from the “Rocky” films. Oct. 18-19, LaurelHillPHL.com

David Howarth

Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn

The theme this year of Nightfall, an event that takes over much of the 478-acre Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, is, appropriately, Time Flies. More than 4,000 people are expected to take in performances and stories from the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and Morbid Anatomy, a cultural organization, as well as music and film installations curated by Death of Classical and Rooftop Films. Oct. 17-18, Green-Wood.com

Maike Schulz

Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles

The largest Day of the Dead celebration in the U.S. takes place at the star-studded Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For the 25th anniversary of the event, more than 100 elaborate altars will be built throughout the grounds. Along with food and vendors, the event also will feature performances by Pedro Fernández, Los Lobos and more. Oct. 26, LADayoftheDead.com

Mauricio Hoyos

LINK TO WSJ article…

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/when-didcemeteriesbecome-tourist-attractions-andhot-date-spots-ad3c3062?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Joe Harrington