Helmsley Mausoleum, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

According to Waymarking.com:

Harry and Leona Helmsley were two of America’s and wealthiest (sic) property owner. They made billions in real estate, owning many of the country’s most prestigious properties including the Empire State Building. Their lavish lifestyle and questionable business practices drew the attention of federal investigators which lead to charges of tax evasion. Harry who was in poor health was too frail to plead died in 1997. However, Leona who had reportedly utter the now famous words, “Only little people pay taxes,” was fined and sentenced to 16-years in prison but served only 19-months. Harry died in 1997 and was originally entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. Leona disliked the setting so much that she built the mausoleum here and had Harry re-interred in 2004. Leona died in 2007 and is entombed beside Harry.

The Helmsley Mausoleum is the final resting place of billionaire real estate moguls Harry and Leona Helmsley. The private mausoleum complete with stained glass was built in 2004 at a cost of more than $1.4-million dollars. It sits on a wooded hillside in the northern most section of the cemetery, near such notable figures as Walter Chrysler and William Rockefeller.

Leona also specified that her dog Trouble (to whom she bequeathed $12 million – later whittled down to $2 million) also be buried in the Mausoleum. Unfortunately NY State law does not allow this. Trouble passed away in 2011 (see: NY Times. Cosseted Life and Secret End of a Millionaire Maltese). What happened to the remains? According to the NY Times article:

Trouble was cremated and her remains were “privately retained,” said a spokeswoman for the Helmsley Trust. In her will, Mrs. Helmsley asked that Trouble’s remains be buried alongside her own, in the Helmsley mausoleum at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County. But Jim Logan, a member of the cemetery’s board, said Mrs. Helmsley’s lawyers knew the cemetery would abide by regulations that forbid the interring of nonhuman remains at human cemeteries. That said, mausoleums are considered private property and the Helmsley family had its own key.

Might Trouble be buried alongside her mistress? “In all honesty,” Mr. Logan said, “we don’t know.”

Taken with an Olympus OM2-n MD and 50mm f1.8 F-Zuiko auto-s.