Oakwood Cemetery, Troy New York

Date added: October 31, 2023

Categories:
New York
Cemetery

Looking west at northwest edge of cemetery (1984)

Oakwood Cemetery, founded in 1848 and in continued use since 1850, is one of New York State's most distinguished and well-preserved nineteenth-century rural cemeteries. Its rolling hills, panoramic prospect, and naturalistic plantings exemplify the ideal of picturesque landscape design. Within its boundaries stand outstanding examples of cemetery art and architecture representing the Victorian period taste for picturesque romanticism and lavish artistic expression. The work of architects and sculptors of both local and national acclaim are represented at Oakwood including architects Henry Dudley, Fuller and Wheeler, and sculptors J. Massey Rhind, William Rinehart, and Robert Launitz. The cemetery is the final resting place for many of the prominent citizens of Troy, some of whom helped shape the history of our nation. Notable among them are military leaders John Wool and George Thomas, educator Emma Willard, financier Russell Sage, and, Samuel Wilson, progenitor of the symbol "Uncle Sam."

As developed in the nineteenth century, a "rural cemetery" was a burial ground, usually located on the outskirts of a city, which provided a secluded, naturalistic setting for the interment and commemoration of the dead. Combining the techniques of picturesque English landscape gardening with the romantic ideal of rural innocence, the rural cemeteries were a response to both the physical and moral ills of urban life. From the concept that crowded cities spawned immorality came doctrines that stressed aesthetically pleasing natural environments. In urban areas where open space was a rare commodity and parks were usually reserved for the private use of the wealthy, the rural cemeteries provided unique opportunities for healthful and pious recreation.

The rural cemetery concept was introduced to the United States in 1831 with the establishment of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By 1865 there were 65 rural cemeteries in the country; concentrated mostly on the east coast, of which seven were in New York State. The first rural cemeteries in New York were Mount Hope in Rochester and Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery, both founded in 1838. In 1841, the rural cemetery movement reached New York's capital district, (the upper Hudson Valley) with the establishment of Albany Rural Cemetery. However, it was not until 1847 that the state passed an act authorizing the incorporation of rural cemetery associations. Oakwood Cemetery, founded in 1848, was the fourth rural cemetery in New York State and the Troy Cemetery Association, made up of eight of Troy's leading citizens, was the first to be incorporated under that law.

John C. Sidney, a Philadelphia engineer familiar with the laying out of cemetery grounds, began the task of planning paths, roads, lakes, lots, and the general organization of the grounds. Sidney, best known for his architectural and landscaping work in Cape May, New Jersey in the 1870s, was at this time designing sophisticated Victorian Gothic-style residences for the affluent in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill. Little is known about his early career, but he is believed to have done surveying and design work at both Fairmount Park and Woodlawn (Philadelphia's second rural cemetery) prior to 1850. His 1850 map of Oakwood Cemetery displays a mastery of the picturesque style of landscape architecture, including such characteristic design elements as conifer groves, serpentine drives, naturalistic lakes, and irregular land divisions. An area of approximately 300 acres is shown on the map, including present-day Sections A through Q, with the entrance from Oakwood Avenue. Romantic names, such as Evergreen Avenue and Snowdrop Walk, are assigned to the roads and paths. The map also includes elevations of a superintendent's house and a receiving vault, which were constructed in 1850. Of these, the superintendent's house no longer exists but a much altered, abandoned receiving vault remains at the original site. Several small structures such as a greenhouse and storehouse were constructed in the early 1850's (also to Sidney's specifications) but the plans and locations of these have since been lost. While Sidney continued to provide architectural expertise on his short visits to Troy, plots were graded and enclosed for burial lots in a seemingly haphazard fashion, under the supervision of Robert Fergusson, the superintendent. In 1852, Section D was surveyed as "free grounds" for single interments for the indigent. That same year, the Vanderheyden and Leversee Cemetery, once associated with the Derrick Vanderheyden home, was absorbed into Section S of Oakwood Cemetery. Between 1855-1860, a western entrance, previously a footpath, was widened to approximately 56 feet to allow eastern access by Lansingburgh residents. In 1862, the Cemetery Association appropriated a plot for the burial of deceased officers and soldiers of the Army and Navy from Rensselaer County and vicinity (within Section P).

Although Sidney laid out the cemetery, it is John Boetcher, superintendent from 1871 to 1898 who is credited with giving Oakwood the parklike environment it has today. Boetcher was born in Germany but emigrated to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865. There he trained under Adolph Strauch, renowned landscape architect and superintendent of Spring Grove Cemetery, an early rural cemetery (1845). Oakwood is purported to have been fairly crude when Boetcher arrived in 1871. As superintendent for twenty-seven years, he was responsible for beautifying the grounds with an abundance of shifting landscape scenery, including plantings of exotic shrubs and trees (Japanese Umbrella trees and Colorado Blue Spruce).

It was during Boetcher's tenure that most of the cemetery's noteworthy buildings were constructed: the keeper's house expansion in 1875; the Queen Anne style lodge/office in 1884; the Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium in 1887-89, and numerous mausolea. Such important additions to the landscape as the lacy iron bridge over Ulls Lake, designed by J. Wrey Mould; the covered bridge over the railroad lines at the 101^st Street entrance; and new gates at both the 101^st and 114^th Street entrances were made during this period.

The large amounts of space in rural cemeteries permitted the use of sculpture in a way that the crowded churchyard had never allowed. Rural cemeteries virtually became open-air sculpture museums as well-known sculptors of the time were commissioned to create memorials to deceased loved ones. Among those known to have works at Oakwood are: The Russian born, celebrated New York City marble sculptor Robert E. Launitz (1807-1870) designed and sculpted a white marble sarcophagus surmounted by an American eagle for Troy's General George H. Thomas. One of Launitz's most celebrated pieces is the memorial urn for A.J. Downing on the Mall in Washington, D.C. He also sculpted works for Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. William Rinehart (1825-1874) was known nationally for his seated bronze of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1872 in Annapolis, Maryland), the models for two pairs of bronze doors for the U.S. Capital, and his many Classical pieces. His last work, a lifesize statue for the Julia Taylor Paine monument, is in Oakwood. J. Massey Rhind (1860-1936), sculptor of the Robert Ross monument, a prolific artist of the early twentieth century, designed works for the Ehret mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, marble caryatides for the R.H. Macy and Company building in New York City, and the Peter Stuyvesant Monument in New Jersey.

Creators of many other significant monuments in Oakwood Cemetery are unknown or have been forgotten. One such is the Gilbert monument, which was exhibited in Philadelphia at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, where it was deemed one of the most beautiful works of its type to be seen there. Another monument greatly admired in its own time, not so much for its artistic merit as for the technological achievement it represented, is the General Wocl obelisk. A single shaft of granite 75½ feet high, it is surpassed in height only by the Egyptian obelisk in Central Park. It was quarried in Maine, transported by boat to Troy, and moved to its site overlooking the Hudson Valley by means of rollers. Innumerable smaller monuments and grave markers in Oakwood exhibit the sentiment, the symbolism, the fashions, and the taste of the Victorian and Edwardian periods.

Many of the buildings at Oakwood are outstanding examples of period architecture. Henry Dudley's Warren Family Vault is an excellent, though miniature, example of an English country Gothic church. Dudley, a noted English architect who made his practice in New York, was known for his prominent role in importing the Gothic Revival style to the United States. The Albany architects Albert Fuller and W.A. Wheeler, best known for their mastery of changing architectural fashions in numerous public and domestic commissions in the area, are represented at Oakwood by two buildings: The lodge/office at the 10lst Street entrance is an exuberant example of Queen Anne design, while the Earl Crematorium is an extraordinarily lavish and original exercise in the Romanesque Revival style. The keeper's house, believed to have been designed by superintendent John Boetcher, is a distinctive blending of Italianate and Gothic Revival design. Only in rare cases are the architects of the mausolea and vaults known, but all are notable examples of period architectural fashions, ranging from the most austere Greek temples to the more elaborate Gothic and Richardsonian Romanesque forms.

As previously mentioned, many of Troy's outstanding citizens are buried in Oakwood. The best known of these is "Uncle Sam" Wilson, who was born near Troy in 1766. During the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson was contracted to furnish the U.S. army with 300 barrels of beef packed in white-oak barrels. He was also appointed Inspector of Provisions for the army in the New York area. "EA-US'" were the initials he stamped on the meat barrels. "EA" stood for Elbert Anderson, a contractor, and the "US" for the United States. But many who knew Sam Wilson fondly as Uncle Sam believed the "US" stood for that nickname. The allusion quickly grew and the "US" soon became a guarantee of excellence for meat passed through Sam's inspection. Soon the army would accept no meat but Uncle Sam's. Other contractors, in order to make their provisions more acceptable to the troops, began to announce "Uncle Sam" brands in all provisions. The Federalist Press throughout the country picked up the term in 1813 and it has been used as a national symbol ever since. By an Act of the 87^th Congress of the United States in 1961, "Uncle Sam" Wilson of Troy was recognized as the progenitor of America's national symbol. His grave, dating from 1854, is marked by an undistinguished granite headstone erected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1936.

Other renowned persons buried at Oakwood include Mary Warren, who founded the first educational institute for problem children in America. Emma Willard, a pioneer in women's education, is also buried there. Ms. Willard founded the Troy Female Seminary in 1814, where she advanced the ideas of educational reform that led to the provision of advanced education for women. Also at Oakwood is Robert Ross who died defending the purity of the ballot, a martyrdom that focussed national attention on New York's election laws. The Griswold mausoleum is dedicated to John A. Griswold, who promoted the use of iron cladding for warships in the Civil War, and manufactured the panels for the Monitor. General Wool, mentioned previously was a career Army man, a hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War and the only Northern General to be undefeated in the Civil War. Also buried at Oakwood are politicians of local, state, and national importance, bankers, industrialists, and merchants active in Troy's economic life, and leaders in education, religion, and social reform.

In 1869, the property occupied by the Third Street Burying Ground in the City of Troy was purchased as the site for a new city hall. This had been Troy's first cemetery and the city's earliest citizens were buried there. Most of the remains from the Third Street Cemetery, including those of the Vanderheydens, on whose property Troy was built, and Abraham Jacob Lansing, founder of Lansingburgh, were moved to Oakwood Cemetery. Thus, the names of the famous from all periods of Troy's history can be found throughout Oakwood.

Oakwood Cemetery was originally planned to fulfill a public need for an eligibly situated, extensive burial ground; but, like most rural cemeteries, it served a secondary need for wholesome, healthy recreation. Its premier park-like setting drew so many visitors that, in 1908, the Cemetery Board started a stage service between Oakwood Avenue and the 114^th Street gate. Each horse-drawn "car" could accommodate twenty passengers. For those walking, there are benches scattered throughout the grounds; some are incorporated into memorials but were meant for the company of the living. Today, Oakwood is as well maintained as ever but, because of the shift in society's attitude toward death and cemeteries, it is visited much less frequently than in years past.

Site Description

Oakwood Cemetery occupies .8 square miles of rolling highlands in the northeast sector of the city of Troy. Situated on the escarpment that rises to the east of the Hudson River Plain, the cemetery overlooks the city of Lansingburgh (now part of the city of Troy) directly to the west and urban Troy to the south. The cemetery ridge affords spectacular views across the Hudson River to Waterford, Cohoes, Albany, and beyond to the Heldebergh and Catskill Mountains. Its undulating terrain is covered with foliage of all kinds, ranging from densely forested hillsides to broad rolling lawns. The natural beauty of the site has been enhanced over the years by the construction of broad avenues and winding paths, by damming and channeling of mountain streams to form picturesque ponds, and by planting of rare trees and shrubs.

The property contains two residential structures, two chapels, twenty-four mausolea, and monuments and statuary marking more than 55,000 graves. Greek, Roman, and Gothic Revival; Romanesque; Egyptian Revival; Palladian; and Eclectic styles of architecture are all exhibited. Significant landscape features include: four man-made lakes, twenty-nine miles of paved and graveled roads, and wrought-iron fencing and gates at the three entrances. Significant plantings include mature shade trees lining the roads, groves of conifers, and rare trees and shrubs scattered informally throughout the grounds. In addition to features significant in landscape architecture, and sculpture, Oakwood contains the graves of many prominent historical figures.

The 325 acres of the property include all that portion of the cemetery west of Oakwood Avenue, comprising the whole area included in the historic landscape plan and developed in the historic period.

The property is bounded on the west by the bed of the old Troy and Boston Railroad, on the north by Farrell Road, and on the east by Oakwood Avenue. The southern boundary is a line that extends due east from just south of 101^st Street to Oakwood Avenue. The Troy Cemetery Association also owns 100 acres to the east of Oakwood Avenue, but they are not part of the cemetery nor have they been developed.

The western edge of the cemetery is situated on a bluff which becomes increasingly steep toward the north. Narrow roadways incline gradually through this densely forested area from entrances near 10lst Street and 114^th Street. Because of the steep slope, the only burials in this section are concentrated near the roadways. In contrast, the gently rolling terrain of the upland plateau is fully developed. Winding roads define the lobular sections, most of which are densely occupied by burials. Pedestrian pathways, dotted here and there with benches of iron or stone, crisscross the sections. Burial plots appear to have been laid out and assigned in a haphazard fashion. While there is no concentration of historic graves in any single location, the oldest burials are found in the southern half of the cemetery, which was developed first. Mausolea appear singly and in clusters throughout the cemetery, mostly on the sides and crests of knolls. Buildings are concentrated near the southern corners of the property: the keeper's house, Earl Crematorium, and Warren Chapel on the road leading north from the Oakwood Avenue entrance, and a lodge office at the 101^st Street entrance. The remaining entrance, at 114^th Street, is marked only by a gate.

The major extant structures built by the Cemetery Association are the two residential buildings that guard the main entrances. At the eastern, Oakwood Avenue, entrance is the keeper's house, built in 1861 with extensive additions in 1875. The original structure, designed by J.C. Sidney, is an L-shaped two-story stone building with a clipped-gable slate roof. Its front (southeast) elevation exhibits two 2/2-light windows on the second floor and a three-sided bay window with 1/l-light round-arched windows on the first floor. The rear (northwest) elevation mimics the front. On the northeast side are two wall dormers on the second floor and a full-length sun porch on the first. In 1875, a brick wing in the Italianate style was added to the southwest. It is dominated by a square tower, its mansard roof pierced on each side by hooded dormers. The southwest elevation features segmental-arched 2/2-light windows on the second floor and casements on the first floor with hood molds and stone sills.

On the southeast is a porch embellished with ogee arches and a simple spindle balustrade. The facade underneath the porch has been enclosed.

The second non-mortuary structure is the office and lodge building which serves as the gatehouse to the 101^st Street entrance. This Queen Anne style structure, designed by Fuller, Wheeler, and Prescott of Albany in 1884, features a variety of materials and surface textures including a rusticated stone foundation, brick first story, shingled second story, half-timbered gable ends, and slate roof with iron ridge cresting. An irregular cruciform, the two-story building has a tall attic with decorated gable ends and elaborately carved raking boards. A massive corbelled chimney and. gable dormers pierce the roof. Fenestration is asymmetrical and varied. Included are a large stained-glass oval; multi-light casements in the gables; and double-hung sash with ten-light transom, found singly paired, and in groups of three. Small porches shelter the entrances: the door in the northwest corner is set diagonally in a square porch with a paneled brick balustrade, while that at the northeast corner faces north under a gabled porch.

The largest and most distinguished building on the cemetery grounds is the Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium, built in 1887-89 by Mr. and Mrs. William S. Earl as a memorial to their son, and early proponent of cremation. Designed by prominent Albany architects Fuller and Wheeler, it is a striking building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style defined by such characteristic features as round arches, wall dormers, rock-faced stone, and polychromy. It is constructed of pinkish Westerly granite with accents of a whiter stone. The elaborate and picturesque design incorporates a crematorium, chapel, loggia, and bell tower. At the southern end is the 90-foot bell tower with a pyramidal roof, conical corner turrets, and a corbelled balcony. The tall round-arched openings that light the bell tower form a sharp contrast to the squat triple arch of the loggia which connects the tower to the chapel. The cruciform chapel has transepts and a three-sided apse at the north end; a low octagonal tower rises from the crossing. Extending from the north side of the west transept is the gabled crematorium which features a tall central chimney exhibiting chamfered corners and a denticulated cap. The north elevation of the crematory has a semi-circular arch in the gable enclosing a central circular window over two smaller semi-circular openings. Below these is a tripartite window frieze. The sumptuous interior features exotic marbles of every hue in the floors and the intricately carved columns and friezes. Also contributing to the interior luxury are quartered oak ceilings, mosaics, bronze doors, an onyx altar, a stained-glass window executed by Tiffany Studios, two three-dimensional stained-glass windows by Maitland Armstrong and carved oak furniture made specifically for this building. Attached to the west side of the crematory is a modern double-retort crematory, built in 1972, of concrete block. It is an unadorned single-story rectangle. Across the driveway, unobtrusive in a wooded grove, sits another modern one-story concrete block building which contains one retort and storage space.

To the east of the Earl Chapel and Crematorium, lies the 1934 Geer Greenhouse. Two glass greenhouses, oriented east to west, are connected at their western ends by a one-story frame building. Set perpendicular and to the east of the two greenhouses is a third long greenhouse.

The greenhouses are quite deteriorated and may soon be demolished.

The Warren Family Mortuary is a somewhat smaller chapel sited on a knoll in the center of the cemetery. Built in 1860, it is a stone church in the English country Gothic style designed by noted architect Henry Dudley of New York. It has a steep slate roof, a nave and cross transept plan, lancet windows, and a recessed pointed-arch entrance with a small rosette window above. In 1883 a tower of compatible material and design was added on the northeast side. On the interior, above the altar, there is a triple stained-glass window designed by artist/professor Robert Weir of West Point.

The cemetery contains twenty-four other private mausolea scattered throughout the grounds. These exhibit a wide array of architectural styles from Greek temples, to neo-Egyptian and Gothic Revival vaults to the eclectic 'beehive' of the Tracy mausoleum. The Sage mausoleum is the quintessential Greek temple, a one-story peripteral form featuring the fluted columns and triglyph and metope entablature of the fully developed Doric order. A more Palladian form is exhibited in the Kemp mausoleum, while the cruciform Cannon mausoleum is more like a Roman temple with a central dome over the crossing. The Elmer E. Strope mausoleum is a simplified Greek Revival temple form building whose fluted Ionic columns flank a bronze door that is an outstanding example of Art Nouveau design depicting an angel in a field of lilies.

The Green Vault, set into a hillside, is Egyptian in style with long, low pylons flanking a trapezoidal section bordered by reeded, papyrus-like half rounds and topped by a reeded flared cap with stylized wing forms.

The Tibbits Family Vault and Ant-Chapel is a small cruciform, stone chapel of the Gothic style. Another Gothic design is the Vail Vault, its curved facade pierced by a pointed-arch entry and topped with pinnacles. An elaborate fence of iron links supported by urns and posts surrounds this hillside vault. Evenly spaced buttresses and a pointed arched entrance featuring clustered colonnettes, a central trefoil, and a crocketed pediment are the Gothic elements of the Gale mausoleum.

Rock-faced stone and low, round arches springing from truncated columns give the Howard/Hart memorial a Romanesque quality. The beehive-shaped Tracy mausoleum also uses rock-faced stone and foliate carvings- an eclectic combination of Romanesque, Moorish, and Baroque elements.

The monuments were designed in a wide range of styles as well.

The Gilbert monument resembles a Gothic spire with a pinnacle supported by four narrow, pointed arches whose corners are buttressed, pinnacled shafts. Joseph Fuller's grave is marked by an elaborately carved Celtic Cross, one of the first in the cemetery. It was designed by Mr. Batterson of the New England Granite Company after a description supplied to him by Fuller of a monument seen in Kilary, Ireland. Peter Thalimer's monument is also an exquisitely carved Celtic Cross. General John E. Wool's monument is a monolithic obelisk, 75'6" high from the base, with a weight exceeding 100 tons. Statues also dot the cemetery grounds as markers to the deceased. Often, as in the Bootwell and Julia Taylor Paine monuments they are of beautiful women with flowing garments and garlands in their hands. The Robert Ross monument depicts Ross defending the American flag and a ballot box, in honor of his heroic death, a martyrdom which focussed public attention on New York's lax election laws. Long, low, curved benches form the basis of the Sleicher and Giles memorials. Statues of winged angles are seated on the benches, inviting visitors to rest. A white marble sarcophagus surmounted by an American eagle grasping a sword in its talons marks the grave of General George H. Thomas.

Another kind of memorial is the Vanderheyden Bell, located near the eastern entrance, northeast of the Earl Crematorium. This massive bronze bell, weighing 3,079 pounds, originally hung under a log shelter. In 1971, after years in storage, it was resurrected and hung within a 'tower' of four redwood posts.

There is a rich variety of gravestone designs, ranging from markers simply engraved with a name and date to elaborately carved monuments surmounted with all manner of symbolic sculpture, including crosses, willow branches, Greek urns, anchors for deceased sailors, and fire hats for firemen.

Each of the three entrances is marked by iron fencing and gates with granite posts. A wire mesh fence surrounds most of the cemetery grounds, replacing the original wooden picket.