Long-Awaited Green-Wood Cemetery Center To Break Ground This Year

BROOKLYN, NY — After nearly a decade of failed attempts, a new educational and cultural programming center at Green-Wood Cemetery is slated to break ground this year, according to a city agency.

The new Welcome and Education center, set to be built around a historic greenhouse near the cemetery's main entrance, is ready to go forward "later this year" after receiving $4.5 million in funding from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, the agency announced Monday.

"This critical funding will allow us to better serve our Brooklyn and New York Communities," Richard Moylan, president of Green-Wood Cemetery, said in a statement.

"We'll be able to extend our educational and cultural programming to a year-round schedule and provide first-rate visitor orientation to over 450,000 visitors annually," he said of the center.

Green-Wood's financial allocation, which is part of the $127 million Mayor Eric Adams earmarked for citywide cultural capital projects in the city's 2023 budget, comes after a nearly decade-long attempt to transform a historic cemetery greenhouse into a welcome center.

The cemetery purchased the Weir Greenhouse, located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 25th Street, in 2012 from McGovern Florists, which operated out of the building for about 40 years, Bklyner reported.

Since then, Green-Wood has proposed restoring the greenhouse and adding a visitors-slash-educational center a couple times, but the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission has never given the go-ahead, Curbed reported.

At the end of last year, though, after reviewing a more modern proposal for the center, the commission unanimously approved the project.

As proposed, the center will include an L-shaped building surrounding the restored historic greenhouse. The center will have an entry courtyard and flexible rooms inside for educational events, staff work, and community gatherings alike, plans show.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said by funding the project the city is "enhancing one of Brooklyn's greatest treasures."

"Our investments for cultural institutions across the borough will greatly benefit all New Yorkers for years to come," she said, alluding to some of the other cultural capital projects included in the city's budget, including investments in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Brooklyn Academy of Music.