Geneva – Troinex, Cemetery

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By this point I was tired and my legs/feet hurt. I was starting to develop blisters and I still had a long walk ahead for me. I should just call it a day and turn back. But then I saw a sign that read “Cimetière” and with my fascination with cemeteries I just couldn’t pass it up. As it turned out it wasn’t too far away.

As I approached I noticed a sign strongly stating that dogs (actually all animals) were forbidden. After living/working in Switzerland I know that the Swiss are very big on rules so since I had the dog with me I didn’t go inside. From the outside it didn’t look all that interesting: small and somewhat modern looking. I suppose it could have gone back further than I could see, but I couldn’t go in to find out.

I kept meaning to return without the dog, but somehow never got around to it.

St. Philip’s Church in the Highlands, Garrison

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Yet another film photograph. I’ve always loved this church – largely because it doesn’t really seem to belong in the US. I’ve seen so many like it in my own country (the UK) that seeing this one really makes me feel at home, and a little nostalgic. In fact the church resembles, to a certain extent, St. Mary’s church in Sandbach, where I grew up.

This one has a rich history. According to Wikipedia:

The church was originally established ca. 1770 when St. Peter’s Church in Peekskill was granted charter by King George III. The wardens, Beverley Robinson and Charles Moore, decided to establish a parish to the north, in the area known as Four Corners, to serve families in that area. After a short period in another church and a parishioner’s home, a small wooden chapel was built where the present church stands. The current graveyard was also started at the same time. The new complex was possibly named St. Philip’s in honor of the Philipse family, original patentees of the area and Robinson’s in-laws.

The Rev. John Doty, the first rector of both churches, left for Nova Scotia after a few years as he was a staunch Loyalist in an area increasingly divided over revolutionary politics. Robinson, too, declined an invitation from his friend John Jay to swear allegiance to the newly created United States, and actively worked to support the British by organizing the Loyal American Legion and coordinating intelligence-gathering efforts. His lands and home were eventually confiscated by the new government of New York, and he left for England after the war, never to return.

A similar fate would befall half of St. Philip’s families, and the church was so despised locally for its Tory associations that legend has it a mob came together to burn it down at one point during the later years. They were supposedly dissuaded from doing so by George Washington himself, who stood at the door and said “That, sir, is my church!” In gratitude the stained glass window in the church’s vestibule depicts him.

…

A new pastor, the Rev. Charles Frederick Hoffman, arrived in May 1860. The completion of the Hudson River Railroad through nearby Garrison Landing had made the community more accessible to New York City and a desirable place to live for some of the most socially prominent families of the day, many of whom were congregants. Hoffman saw that the growing church needed a new building.

His congregation responded. Henry Belcher donated three acres (1.2 ha) for the building and grounds, and others raised $10,000 for its construction. The design came from another worshipper at St. Philip’s, Richard Upjohn, already famous for Manhattan’s Trinity Church. The new structure, a one-story Gothic Revival building of gray granite, was finished in 1861 and consecrated the next year.

In the decades afterwards, a carriage house and shed were built near the church. At the turn of the century, a parish house was built.

The picture was taken with a Fed 2 rangefinder camera and Fed 50mm f3.5 collapsible lens (based on the Leitz Elmar). I believe the film was Kodak Gold 400.

For a more complete history of St. Philips Church see (in a variety of different formats) History of St. Philip’s church in the Highlands, Garrison, New York, including, up to 1840, St. Peter’s church on the manor of Cortlandt by Chorley, E. Clowes (Edward Clowes), 1865-1949

Locust Grove – RIP Pinky Winky

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By the entrance to the trails at Locust Grove are not one, but two pet cemeteries. The first one (see picture above and first picture below) consists of what appear to be recently painted simple (i.e. just the pet’s name) wooden markers. The second one (see second picture below) looks older – with stone markers and more extensive inscriptions. My wife did the house tour and told me that there are all kinds of animals in the two cemeteries – including horses. The owners must really have loved their pets. I have no idea what kind of pet Pinky Winky was.

First two pictures were taken with a Sony RX-100 M3 and the final one with a Canon EOS 650.

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Croton Gorge – Serendipity

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When I embarked upon this walk in Croton Gorge I didn’t have high expectations. I’d been there many times and thought that I must already have come across everything of interest. However, one of the great things about photography is that no matter how many times you’ve visited a place there’s always something new. It might be detail you’ve missed, or a different viewpoint on something you’ve already seen, maybe different light makes something familiar feel new. Or it might just be something that was there in plain sight and you just missed it.

This post provides an example of the final point above. Anyone who reads this blog (if indeed anyone does) will know that I’m fascinated by cemeteries. I’d been along this trail many times and had never noticed this solitary grave stone by the side of the house. I didn’t see any other markers, and I’m not sure if anyone is actually buried here, or whether it’s a cenotaph (i.e. a memorial for people who are actually buried elsewhere). I suspect that missed this in the past because it was in shade and less noticeable. This time the sun was reflecting of the polished surface of the gravestone. You could hardly miss it.

I searched the internet to try to find additional information about the family and came across an obituary in the New York Times for Egon H. Ottinger dated October 1992. It reads:

Egon H. Ottinger; Insurer, 93

Egon H. Ottinger, a former chairman of Frank B. Hall & Company, a leading marine insurance company, died on Monday at Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown, N.Y. He was 93 years old and lived in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Mr. Ottinger died of complications from a recent fall, said Carolyn B. Handler, a family spokeswoman.

A native of Newport, R.I., Mr. Ottinger devoted his career to the marine insurance industry. He began at 16 as a clerk and by 1919 was writing marine cargo contracts for the Hall concern, which is now a division of the Aon Corporation.

He became a vice president there in 1935, a director in 1940 and president in 1961. He was the company’s chairman from 1964 to his retirement in 1969.

His wife, the former Lilyan Leaders, died in 1983. There are no immediate survivors.

As noted in the obituary Frank B. Hall company is now a division of Aon Corporation. In the 1980s the Hall company seems to have gone through troubled times as noted in a piece in the New York Times (See: Frank B. Hall) dated May 28 1986. This same article mentions that the company was based in Briarcliff Manor, NY co-incidentally somewhere we have lived for the past almost 20 years.

Woodlawn Cemetery – Samuel Untermeyr

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We almost missed this one! We were on our way out of the cemetery when, almost simultaneously, George and myself caught sight of what looked like a very strange monument tucked away to our left. We decided to check it out, and I’m glad we did.

It turned out to be the final resting place of Samuel Untermeyr (March 6, 1858 – March 16, 1940).

According to the Untermyer Conservancy Website:

Samuel Untermyer was born in Virginia in 1858, and moved to New York City after the Civil War. He was a partner in the law firm of Guggenheimer, Untermyer & Marshall, and was the first lawyer in America to earn a one million dollar fee on a single case. He was also an astute investor, and became extremely wealthy.

Initially he was a corporate lawyer, but later in his career he became a trust-buster. The lead counsel for the Pujo Investigation, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Federal Reserve System, and advocated for the regulation of stock exchanges and other legal reforms. He was an influential Democrat and a close ally of Woodrow Wilson.
Samuel Untermyer was one of the most prominent Jews of his day in America. He was a prominent Zionist, and was President of the Keren Hayesod. In addition, he was the national leader of an unsuccessful movement in the early 1930s for a worldwide economic boycott of Germany, and called for the destruction of Hitler’s regime.

His wife, Minnie Untermyer, was at the center of cultural circles in New York City. She was one of a small group of women that transformed the New York Philharmonic in 1909, and brought Gustav Mahler to conduct the orchestra. She was also President of the American Poetry Society, and a patroness of artists and dancers in New York. She supported women’s suffrage and was able to offer her husband’s legal skills and significant financial support to groups supporting women’s right to vote.

Samuel Untermyer was also passionately interested in horticulture. He famously said that if he could do it over again, he would want to be the Parks Commissioner in New York City! Unlike most wealthy garden-owners, Untermyer was expertly knowledegable about gardening. The level of connoisseurship at the Untermyer Gardens was nationally famous, and many great gardeners got their training there.

The National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Woodlawn provided the following information:

The Samuel Untermyer monument … is sited on a 22,000 square foot private lot. The monument was designed by architect Paul Chaflin (1925) and fabricated by Maine & New Hampshire Granite Company in crystal blue German granite. The monument features a bronze fountain and sculpture by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1925). The monument is U-shaped in plan, with one side of the U occupied by a set of stepped grass terraces edged in stone, ascending to a circular courtyard. The courtyard is bordered by a low granite wall and paved with stones set in a Star of David pattern with a planting of boxwood. At the center of the courtyard is the bronze fountain, sculpted as an urn with three lion busts as feet. The U continues to the area of interments, which is marked at the end with a vertical tower. The tower is open on three sides with elaborate bronze doors decorated with figures depicting the stages of a woman’s life, floral symbols, and Greek inscriptions. Fluted square columns with festoons at their top mark each of the four corners of the tower and support the steeply stepped, ornate bronze roof. The center is occupied by a sculpture of a woman ascending to the afterlife with two figures in the foreground; one is on his knees, the other is standing. The Untermeyer name is inscribed on the base of the tower.

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This striking sculpture above is by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney is also buried at Woodlawn buried with her husband, Harry Payne Whitney. We didn’t bump into their grave site.

As mentioned above Samuel Untermyer was also the former owner of one of my favorite places to visit in the lower Hudson Valley: Untermyer Gardens. I’ve posted about it many times:

Untermyer gardens revisited – ruined gatehouse
Untermyer gardens revisited – waterlily
Untermyer gardens revisited – stone lion
Untermyer gardens revisited – a couple of mosaics
Untermyer gardens revisited – the temple of love
Untermyer gardens revisited – the vista
Untermyer gardens revisited – the walled garden
Untermeyr gardens revisited – overview
Upcoming visit to Untermyer Park
Untermyr Park, Yonkers, NY

This post concludes the marathon series from Woodlawn Cemetery. I’d like to go back sometime: to see some of the monuments I missed; take some pictures of the statuary, flowering shrubs and trees.

Next on the list – Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn (unless I manage to get to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris first).