Green-Wood Cemetery breaks ground on $34 million welcome center

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

Green-Wood Cemetery has broken ground on a $34 million welcome center, which features a historical greenhouse dating back to 1880 as its centerpiece.

The 22,000 square-foot building will be the new educational hub at the 185-year-old cemetery, located on 25th Street and Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park. Included in the space will be galleries featuring Green-Wood’s extensive art collection, classrooms, staff offices and event space for community organizations, the state said.

Thousands of visitors — locals, tourists, loved ones and school children — come to the cemetery every year, many for guided or self-guided tours of the 478-acre grounds and its prominent permanent residents. The idea of the welcome center is not only to expand such programs (and host them year round), but transform the cemetery into a cultural institution featuring a “dynamic and immersive experience that will inspire a deeper appreciation for this extraordinary site,” a release said.

The L-shaped building will wrap around the “exuberantly domed 1880 Weir Greenhouse,” as described by the New York Times. The cemetery has been working to restore the decaying structure since it was purchased it in 2012 for $1.6 million from a Brooklyn florist shop.

For those that are curious about the “Weir” that adorns the greenhouse, it has deep Brooklyn roots. The Weir Greenhouse  was built by James Weir, Jr., whose father founded a florist business in Bay Ridge in 1850. The greenhouse itself cultivated deep ties to the cemetery in the decades since the late nineteenth century due to its proximity and the demand for flowers at funerals. It was purchased by McGovern Florists in 1971.

While the greenhouse is nearing its final restoration point this summer, the welcome center will be completed in 2025.