[
EVG file photo]
There's a feature in The New York Times today on the New York Marble Cemetery ... and why the historic cemetery on Second Avenue between Second Street and Third Street is hosting weddings,
Vogue fashion shoots and Stella McCartney fashion events...
Per the article:
The cemetery’s trustees, descendants of some of the people interred in the vaults — the last burial was in 1937 — have allowed events to be held on the grounds to help pay for badly needed repairs and restorations.
The aim, said Caroline S. DuBois, one of the trustees, was “how we could make the cemetery pay for itself.”
“That has morphed into a business.” The fee for a wedding is $2,500, she said.
Officials at the cemetery, which was established in 1830, did turn down a promotional party for a tequila company.
However, regardless of how upscale some of the events may be...
The neighborhood’s old grittiness has not disappeared entirely. [Gardener Gresham] Lang said he sometimes found hypodermic needles on the grass. A mulberry tree near the ruined wall is now “the underwear tree” because residents of a homeless shelter nearby “throw underwear, condoms, among other things” into the cemetery.
Previously.
