Green-Wood Cemetery Slated For $34 Million Welcome Center

PARK SLOPE, NY — Construction started Tuesday on a massive, $34 million welcome center for Green-Wood Cemetery, promising a wraparound structure to highlight the historic Weir Greenhouse.

The 22,000-square-foot construction, located at the cemetery's 25th Street and 5th Avenue entrance, will include two new exhibition galleries, a research center, temperature-controlled storage for the cemetery's collections and event space for community use.

The new structure will wrap around the existing Weir Greenhouse, welcoming visitors by June 2025.

“Today we mark the start of a new chapter in Green-Wood’s storied history," Cemetery President Richard Moylan said at a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, joined by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Council Member Alexa Avilés.

The new center will allow the cemetery to expand its year-round programming, according to a news release about the plans.

The focal point of the new construction is the 1880-built Weir Greenhouse, the only Victorian commercial greenhouse known to exist in NYC, according to Landmarks Preservation Commission documents from the 1980s.

"Greenhouses are among the most fragile of building types and without constant maintenance they will quickly decay. The Weir Greenhouse has been in continuous use for almost a century, serving visitors to Greenwood Cemetery; lovingly cared for, it continues to grace the approach to this historic cemetery," the document reads.

In 2012, Green-Wood Cemetery bought the then-decaying structure and embarked on a years-long project to restore it, the New York Times reported.

The cemetery itself was created in 1838 and is protected as a National Historic Landmark, serving as the "permanent residence" for over 570,000 individuals.

"Green-Wood is the green space that inspired New York’s rich system of public parks almost 200 years ago," said the council's executive director Mara Manus, who also popped on a hard hat for Tuesday's groundbreaking.

New York City, state and federal authorities have sunk a whopping $18 million into the new construction, including $2 million from the state's Council on the Arts.