On Twitter

Albany Rural Cemetery is now on Twitter.  There's only one post and just one follower at the moment so...go follow them!

@AlbanyRuralCem

(I'm also on Twitter at @PaulaLemire).

Some Thoughts For 2014

Growing up, I was only familiar with Albany Rural Cemetery in passing.  It was just “that cemetery where a Presidentis buried.” I pictured it as being a fairly ordinary modern cemetery with long, even rows of polished granite headstones and little bronze plaques. 

It wasn't until the year that Ironweed was filmed locally that I took an interest in seeing the Rural Cemetery. Area news stations did features on the filming locations and, since, some scenes were shot there (though the book actually sets those scenes in the adjacent St. Agnes Cemetery), Albany Rural Cemetery was among those places profiled on TV. In one of those news segments, I caught a glimpse of a stunning monument. It was Erastus Dow Palmer's Angel At The Sepulchre and I just had to see it in person.

Theodore Freylinghausen Wyckoff

This simple stone stands on the edge of Moordanaers Kill across the Pumpelly vault and just up the path from the massive granite monument of William Appleton.  It's one that I passed many times, yet never noticed until one day the sunlight fell across it at just the right angle and the carving caught my eye.  It's one of the most beautifully carved roses I've seen in Albany Rural. 

A close-up of the rose from my Instagram page.  The pale green lichen highlights the delicate petals.

This lovely monument marks the graves of Theodore Freylinghausen Wyckoff, a Dutch Reformed minister who was born in Catskill, New York in 1820 and died in the West Indies at the age of thirty-five.  The McClintock Bible Encyclopedia gives a short profile of him:

He graduated at Rutgers College in 1839, and at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in 1841; was pastor of the Second Reformed Church of Ghent, N.Y., from the 1843 to 1844; of the South Reformed Church, West Troy, from 1845 to 1854, and ministered at St. Thomas, W.I., in 1854-55.  He died of yellow fever, Jan. 19 of the latter year, only a few weeks after his arrival in St. Thomas.  He was a young man of cultivated mind and manners, a careful student, scholarly in his tastes and refined in accomplishments; he wrote much and well for the periodical press.  His sermons were ornate in style, evangelical in matter and spirit, and full of promise.

Three Little Lambs

This triple stone - now tilted and quite illegible - most likely marks the graves of children.  Lambs, of course, have long been a common symbol of innocence and childhood in cemeteries.

The Pyramid of Samuel Brown

Monuments inspired by the art and architecture of Ancient Egypt are fairly common in cemeteries.  The Rural Cemetery's twin receiving vaults and the hillside crypt of the Brinckerhoff-Pumpelly family are both Egyptian in style.  Most were designed as part of the fashion called "Egyptomania" when the art of the ancient Nile kingdom influenced everything from dresses and wallpaper to public buildings and monuments. 

This simple granite pyramid on the crest of the South Ridge, though, is especially appropriate.  It marks the grave of Samuel Brown, the Albany businessman who traveled to Egypt to purchase the pair of mummies which have been an extremely popular attraction at the Albany Institute of History & Art (and the subject of a special exhibit currently open at the museum).

Handwritten letter from Brown regarding the mummies.

More on the Albany mummies.

James Gray

The grave of James Archibald Gray of Boardman & Gray, one of Albany's best known manufacturers of pianos.  Albany, at one time, was home to a number of piano makers.

All Over Albany - The Piano City

Gray's two wives and son are also buried here.  The monument was made by Young & Son in Troy as can be seen by a small inscription on the right side of the base.

John Tweddle

It's impossible to walk down State Street below the Capitol and not notice the Gothic bell tower of historic St. Peter's Episcopal Church.  That tower, with its gargoyles and carved faces, was erected in memory of John Tweddle.

John Tweddle is best remembered for Tweddle Hall, a large building which occupied the corner of State and North Pearl Streets.  The site is now the location of a rather stark modern building which houses a bank, Starbucks, and various offices.

Tweddle Hall was built in 1859 on what was previously known as Elm Tree Corner and Webster's Corner.  This vast building feature a brownstone facade by William Gray who was also responsible for a number of monuments at the Rural Cemetery (including "Sara and Her Babe") and numerous businesses (including tailors, druggists, art and music dealers, law offices, and shoe stores). 

Click here for an antique photo of Tweddle Hall on the Albany Institute of History & Art's site. 

Above the stores was a hall that could seat a thousand people.  Tweddle Hall would host everything from musical performances to conventions.  One of the most notable people to appear at the Hall was Charles Dickens who gave two sold-out readings there.  Like a modern-day rock concert, people lined up for hours in front of the Hall to buy the $2 tickets which sold out quickly or paid high prices to scalpers.   

Tweddle Hall burned in January 1883.  The many stairwells, flammable stage scenery and curtains, and long halls quickly spread the fire from the second floor throughout the building.  It was a total loss and, when it was rebuilt, it was a commercial edifice - the Tweddle Building - without the large performance hall.

John Tweddle was born in England in 1798 and orphaned at the age of nine.  He emigrated to the United States at twenty-one and, by 1847, was involved in the brewing business in Albany.  He was a founder and president of the Merchant's Bank and a Presidential elector voting for Abraham Lincoln's second term.

John Tweddle died of cancer on March 9, 1877.  He was buried on the South Ridge the following May where his grave is marked with a modest marble obelisk.