Grave honor for Woodlawn Cemetery
Grave honor for Woodlawn Cemetery: Sen. urges landmark status for legendary Bronx cemetery
BY DANIEL BEEKMANDAILY NEWS WRITERMonday, June 27, 2011
A treasured Bronx cemetery could soon become the borough’s newest National Historic Landmark and a protected site for future generations.
Woodlawn Cemetery, where jazz greats Miles Davis and Duke Ellington were laid to rest, has been nominated for the rare honor, said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), announcing her support for the site Monday.
Gillibrand is urging the U.S. Department of the Interior to designate the 148-year-old cemetery a landmark, calling it “the final resting place for many famous Americans.”
Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, New York planner Robert Moses, “Moby Dick” author Herman Melville, newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer, songwriter Irving Berlin and Celia Cruz – the “Queen of Salsa” – were laid to rest at Woodlawn….