2. You can discover mausoleums of many architectural styles

Given the sheer amount of individuals interned at Green-Wood Cemetery and its almost 200-year history, the monuments, mausoleums, sculptures, and tombstones at Green-Wood represent a wide variety of architectural and artistic styles. Most mausoleums on site are built in the Classical style, featuring columns, but there is also a large number of Gothic-inspired mausoleums as well. Others resemble ornate, medieval chapels, and there are even Egyptian-inspired monuments, especially obelisks.

There are also many sculptures across the entire 478 acres, some part of specific tombs, others more decorative. One statue, in particular, sparked a controversy: Civic VirtueOriginally unveiled as part of a monumental fountain in City Hall Park in 1922, the sculpture group was intended to be an allegorical representation of Virtue triumphing over Treachery and Corruption. The problem was that Virtue (a man) was standing over and defeating Vice in the form of female mermaids, coming off as oppressive to women. The statue moved to Queens in 1941 only to be met with a new wave of feminists who took issue with it as well, ultimately leading the sculpture to be “banned” to Green-Wood on December 15, 2012.