You city guys have a lot of weird things, so why not cemeteries.  Most
things that are subsurface are  below ground, what's the mystery there.  If
they are all covered over so they are invisible how do you know they are
even there.  Do they LOCK the cemetery at night?  I find this to be a most
peculiar custom although one of the larger towns in this area has started
doing it also.  Ruth




At 2:23 PM -0400 10/10/05, Met History wrote:
In a message dated 10/10/2005 1:53:43 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

My wife remarked recently that I was indeed not worth more dead than alive,
I assume that evaluation has little to do with money, and more with what a
hassle it would be to gift wrap me for my journey across the Stix.

Recently toured Marble Cemetery, on 2nd Street, from Second to First
Avenues - bit open space, maybe 300 feet frontage on the street, behind a
high iron fence.  Looks like a park.    (There is a nearby related cemetery
hidden in the center of the block, facing Second Avenue.)

There are 270 subsurface vaults below ground, about 8x8.  These are
arranged in pairs, facing each other across a telephone booth sized opening
reaching up to grade, but normally covered by a stone slab, itself covered
by a foot of turf.  Thus access to vaults is essentially invisible from the
surface, unless a burial has been recent.

It seems a peculiar arrangement - a 7 foot long coffin, when being lowered,
must reach a 60 degree angle ("Hey, Bubba, are you sure Aunt Tillie is
strapped in?") - I would have thought multiple vaults off a larger, single
point of access - or even a long gallery - would have been more efficient,
since there is plenty of space for such a gallery.

Burial requirements are "biodegradable" - wooden coffins only, if cremation
ashes no ceramic or metal urns.     They try not to enter the vault for 10
or 20 years after the last interment.

Unlike some cemeteries, ownership of the plot remains with the cemetery
itself, rather than passing down as real property through the generations.
Any lineal descendant of the original purchasers are eligible for burial.
My wife is a descendant - a cousin, Winthrop Emmet,  was buried here in
2002, although the prior burial was in the 1860's.
No stated rules regarding poodles, goldfish, hamsters, etc.

Lower East Side is now kind of fashionable.  Probably safer from
hurricanes than Damned Female Island.

Christopher



--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>