Jabara

 

This grave in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery is a copy of a neo-classical sculpture known as the Monteverde Angel of the Resurrection Angel. Most of the angel statues you see in cemeteries are copies of other sculptures. There are many copies of this angel in cemeteries around the globe. The original marble version of this statue was carved in 1882 by the Italian artist Giulio Monteverde for the Oneto family tomb at Staglieno Cemetery in Genova, Italy. There's at least one other Monteverde Angel in Green-Wood. Moneverde even made a copy for his own family's tomb in Rome.

The people buried here are Frederick Massound and Katherine Milkie Jabara. They were immigrants from Syria. Frederick founded F.M. Jabara & Sons, a successful linen import business, in 1908. Frederick died in 1949. Katherine lived until 1982, passing away in California at the age of 96.

Happy Birthday, Charles Feltman!

Today is the birthday of Charles Feltman (1841-1910). He would have been 180 years old! His claim to fame is as the inventor of the hot dog. Awhile back, I happened to draw his mausoleum in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Feltman emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1856, at the age of fifteen. In 1867, he started a business selling food from a pushcart to beachgoers at Coney Island, including frankfurters from his native land. His innovation in 1869 was to insert the frankfurter into a custom-made elongated roll, eliminating the need for plates and utensils. He called the invention the Coney Island Red Hot, but it became better known as the 'hot dog,' perhaps because there was some question as to exactly what sort of meat was in that sausage.

Henry Collins Brown, New York historian and founder of the Museum of the City of New York, explained that "It could be carried on the march, eaten on the sands between baths, consumed on a carousel, used as a baby's nipple to quiet an obstreperous infant, and had other economic appeals to the summer pleasure seeker." I never thought of using hot dogs to pacify my children when they were babies!

In 1871, Feltman leased some land on the boardwalk and began building an entertainment complex that eventually included several restaurants and bars, a beer garden, a carousel, a roller coaster, an outdoor movie theater, a hotel, a bathhouse, a pavilion, and a maple garden. By the 1920s, Feltman's Ocean Pavilion was billed as the world's largest restaurant, serving over five million customers a year. It was actually better known for its seafood than for hot dogs.

In 1916, one of his employees, a roll-slicer named Nathan Handwerker, quit and founded a rival hot dog restaurant. A downscale version of Feltman's, Nathan's sold its hot dogs for five cents as opposed to Feltman's 10-cent weiners. Feltman's empire lasted until the early 1950s, when his sons sold the land to be developed into Astroland Amusement Park. Feltman's is now mostly forgotten, while Nathan's continues to reign as the iconic Coney Island hot dog king.

Feltman's placemat. Image from Green-Wood Cemetery Collection

REFERENCE:

Coney Island History Hall of Fame: Charles Feltman

Langlois Mausoleum

The NYC Chapter of Urban Sketchers was in Greenwood Cemetery recently, so I met up with them for a bit and did this drawing. 

This mausoleum looks small, but if you look through the front door window, you see a set of stairs leading down to subterranean vaults!

I have a whole series of Greenwood Cemetery drawings that I've never posted. I did a lot of research on them, discovering fascinating stories of the people buried there. I couldn't find out anything about this family, the Langlois, though. There are five of them, buried between 1866 and 1893, but I know nothing about them.

I finished the ink drawing on site, and completed the painting later on.

The Battle of Brooklyn

Quick sketches from The Battle of Brooklyn re-enactment and ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery yesterday. The battle was the first and largest engagement of the American Revolution, and was fought on this date 242 years ago. Although it is sometimes called the Battle of Long Island, it was in fact fought entirely in Brooklyn, including on the hills of what is now Greenwood Cemetery.

I don't know if there were really that many Scotsmen in the British Army, or if a lot of these guys just like wearing kilts.