Right off Comstock Avenue lies Oakwood Cemetery, the home to more than 66,000 bodies.
It’s the home to Anna Short Harrington, the face of Aunt Jemima; to Syracuse University chancellors James Day, Charles Flint, William Graham and Melvin Eggers and to more than 200 Civil War veterans, two of whom were in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry that inspired the movie “Glory.”
Established in 1859, Oakwood Cemetery is filled with a rich history that is more than a decade older than the university that surrounds it. Dan Galvin, the executive director of the cemetery, said Oakwood Cemetery was originally designed to be a park as much as it was a cemetery.
“It was always a cemetery, but it was a park setting where people would come here and spend the day at a loved one’s gravesite,” Galvin said.
Galvin added that many people still visit the cemetery for leisurely strolls, exercise and for historical walking tours.
But there have been times when the cemetery’s visitors weren’t always peaceful on the property. Glenn Kress, 62, who has worked at the Oakwood Cemetery for 40 years, said he remembers cleaning up after SU students who spent their nights throwing keg parties in the cemetery.
He also remembers when he thought the Oakwood Cemetery would never be open again after the Labor Day storm of 1998. It wasn’t until the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent a month cleaning up the wreckage that the cemetery could operate again.
But what Kress remembers most about his time working in the cemetery was a strange sequence of events that took place about 20 years ago, when a group of people started to do strange things in Oakwood Cemetery.
“They were burying eggs, and then it got a little bit extreme when they started getting into old mausoleums,” Kress said. “Like, 1800s, really old, big, mausoleums. And they were getting into the crypts and were taking out the skeletons.”
It culminated when an SU student took a skull back from the cemetery and started to boil it in his dorm’s kitchen. It turns out that the student took the skull, believed to be that of former Syracuse Mayor John Crouse, to help him in his art class, said Susanne Greenhagen, a board member of the Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association. They were studying anatomy.
Greenhagen added that the cemetery has become one of the most historic places in Onondaga County and attracts visitors with its unique combination of history and beauty.
“The cemetery is where you learn the history of the community where you’re located. The movers and shakers are buried there, plus there’s some spectacular artwork. Some of the sculptures on some of the monuments are just beautiful.”
Many of the cemetery’s main attractions are the elaborate mausoleums, some of which were built in the 1800s, said Galvin. There are 24 private mausoleums in the cemetery, of all shapes and sizes, but they are no longer accessible due to incidents of vandalism.
One mausoleum that visitors can’t miss is that of Cornelius Longstreet. Rising 71 feet high and sitting at the top of a hill, the pyramid that he was buried in provides a towering presence to the cemetery.
Greenhagen said the statues found throughout the cemetery are equally as beautiful and impressive as the mausoleums. The Haggerty Lion, a statue sculpted by SU alumnus Thomas Haggerty, is her favorite attraction in Oakwood.
Haggerty created the statue as a memorial to his older brother Michael, who died in a car accident in 1974.
But for Galvin, the executive director of the cemetery, what makes the cemetery special isn’t the history or the architecture, it’s the people.
“I would say (my favorite part of working here) is probably the people we come in contact with on a day-to-day basis. You meet all kinds of people,” Galvin said. “A lot of people think, ‘well, it’s just the job where people come in because they’re grieving.’ No, that’s not the case.”
But now Oakwood Cemetery is a tranquil place, Kress said. It’s a place for reflection and learning.
For Greenhagen, the cemetery is a gem of Syracuse, one that can only be appreciated by exploring it.
“There’s so much to be seen,” she said. “And you don’t see it driving by on the street, you have to go in and look. There’s so much to learn.”
Published on October 23, 2014 at 2:23 am
Contact Brendan: bskrisel@syr.edu
