At the corner of 5th Avenue and 25th Street in the Greenwood neighborhood (or extreme south Park Slope or extreme north Sunset Park) is the monumental gate to Green-Wood Cemetery. Designed by Richard Upjohn, the style of the gate (and guard offices) is called Gothic Revival—as opposed to medieval gothic style. Work was begun in 1861 and completed in 1865. The reason it took so long was due to the time-consuming work of carving the brownstone from Belleville, New Jersey. Limestone from Nova Scotia, Canada, was used in the panels that represent the scenes of death and resurrection from New Testament stories including Lazarus, the Widow’s Son, and Jesus’s Resurrection. John M. Moffitt was the sculpture of these panels. The gate was designated as a New York City Landmark in 1966. An interesting side-note is that the gate is home to a large colony of Monk Parrots that escaped from the Kennedy airport in the 1960s. Their call is very loud and is described as “raucous and harsh.”

I’ve highlighted some of the gothic features of this gate.

Prof. Scanlan