Another Cemetery in Mount Kisco

According to Patrick Raftery:

The entrance to the Saint Francis Cemetery, Mount Kisco is on the west side of Lexington Avenue opposite its intersection with Smith Avenue. The cemetery adjoins the northern border of Oakwood Cemetery. The cemetery has been active since 1908.

The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi was found in 1868 to serve Roman Catholic residents of Mount Kisco, Bedford, Pleasantville and part of New Castle. During the late 19th century, the Catholics of the Mount Kisco area would have interred theire deceased friends and family at All Souls Cemetery in Pleasantville, St. Augustine’s Cemetery in Ossining or the small burial ground near Succabone Road in the Town of Bedford. After the church in Pleasantville became its own parish in 1894, however, the parishioners of Saint Francis no longer had a cemetery of their own. This dilemma was solved in 1908, when James Wood and his wife, Emily, donate a parcel of land on the north side of Oakwood Cemetery to the Reverend Francis X. Kelly, pastor of the Church of Saint Francis. Interestingly, the Woods were not the parishioners of Saint Francis. However, James was a “founder and trustee of Oakwood Cemetery” and may have “felt that a Catholic cemetery would be an appropriate neighbor”. Today the cemetery still serves the parishioners of Saint Francis of Assisi. (Patrick Raftery, “The Cemeteries of Westchester County, Volume II“. Westchester Historical Society, 2011.)








“The picture below shows a monument, which does not have the name of the family on it. It marks the grave of several young people who died in the first half of the 20th century. In addition to containing a Pietà, it also contains an engraving of a motorcycle, perhaps reflecting the interest of one or more of the deceased.” (Patrick Raftery, “The Cemeteries of Westchester County, Volume II“. Westchester Historical Society, 2011.) I particularly liked the wasps/bees/hornet’s nest at the top right of the picture.

Taken with a Canon EOS Elan and Canon EF 35-70mm f3.5-4.5

A Cemetery in Mount Kisco, NY

A fellow resident of Briarcliff Manor recently gave me box and a suitcase full of old cameras (but that’s a story for a future post). I decided to take one out to see if it was working. But where to go? Anyone who reads these posts will know that I’m fascinated by cemeteries. My friend and colleague at the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, Karen told me that she’d recently been in nearby Mount Kisco and had spotted some cemeteries. So I decided to go and check them out.

There are actually two cemeteries right next to each other. St. Francis Cemetery (the subject of a future post) and this one, Oakwood Cemetery.

According to Patrick Raftery:

The Oakwood Cemetery in Mount Kisco is located on the East side of Lexington Avenue opposite the intersection of Moor Avenue. It has been active since 1872. From 1872-1883 its official name was Locust Hill Cemetery.

Oakwood Cemetery was mentioned briefly by Joseph Barrett in Scharf’s History of Westchester County, New York: “Oakwood Cemetery, a very beautiful tract of land of fifty-five acres, is in the Village of Mount Kisco. It was laid out by Mr. Chauncey Smith, then the owner of the land, and given the name of Locust Hill about 1872. It was incorporated January 9, 1883 by its present name.”

The first burial in the cemetery “was that of a little girl, the daughter of Mr. Martin Hubbell.” According to the New Castle Town Historian, Chauncey Smith was a real estate entrepreneur who developed land he owned on the east side of Lexington Avenue into a residential neighborhood, while converting his property on the west side of that street into a cemetery. The cemetery had been in operation for barely four years when the “panic of 1876 forced Smith into bankruptcy,” a situation which jeopardized the future of the burial ground. The cemetery was reorganized on November 21, 1882, when “nine local citizens (including some of the original plot owners) for a new corporation…to own and operate the cemetery.” The new corporation changed the name of the burial ground to Oakwood Cemetery, “planted 100 oak trees to validate the name” and offered plots for sale ranging from $25 to $350 per lot. At the present time (Note: this is from a volume printed in 2011), the management of Oakwood Cemetery is planning the construction of a new Mausoleum/columbarium to provide alternatives to the traditional method of in-ground burials. (Patrick Raftery, “The Cemeteries of Westchester County, Volume II“. Westchester Historical Society, 2011.)










“This advertisement (see below) for Oakwood Cemetery appeared in ‘Sketches and Views of the Old and New Villages of Katonah, N.Y’., a booklet that was published in August 1900. The ad targeted Katonah residents who were required to to remove the interments of the relatives from Whitlockville Cemetery as a result of the expansion of the Croton Reservoir.” (Patrick Raftery, “The Cemeteries of Westchester County, Volume II“. Westchester Historical Society, 2011.)

Taken with a Canon EOS Elan and Canon EF 35-70mm f3.5-4.5

Kensico Dam – The Rising

Above: The Rising as seen from the West Pavilion.

According to The Official Website for Westchester County Government:

Westchester County’s September 11th Memorial incorporates the names of all the Westchester residents who died, the communities in which they lived and a quote about them from their loved ones. These words are engraved along the outside of the memorial’s circular base. Steel rods extend from the base like the spokes of a wheel before reaching skyward and intertwining. The memorial is surrounded by landscaping that includes perennial plantings and park benches.

The memorial is located at the intersection of many pathways and viewpoints,and thereby extends its presence into the surrounding landscape. The Rising is an open structure. It can be approached from all directions and allows people of all ages and abilities to view it, as well as move through it.

The Rising is the work of Frederic Schwartz, an internationally renowned Manhattan architect who, among many other accomplishments, designed the new Staten Island Ferry Terminal and who was also selected to create the September 11th Memorial for the State of New Jersey.

He founded the THINK team, whose design was selected as a finalist for the redesign of the World Trade Center. Schwartz, whose place of business was in view of the Twin Towers and who donated his time to the project, said that he wanted to design a memorial that expressed the immensity of such a loss while still conveying a sense of hope. His intention was to honor each person individually and unite them together as a community.

Schwartz won a citation award from the Westchester/Mid-Hudson chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for his design of The Rising.


Looking towards the dam

Closer view showing details of the structure

Inside looking up

One of the entrances to the memorial

Names on the base

Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6

Grasses in a pond

For some reason I went out the other day intending to take some pictures of water. As I walked around, I came across this pond. I’ve seen it before, and it seems to come and go. Sometimes (as with today) there’s quite a lot of water; and sometimes it appears to be completely dry.

I think it’s a vernal pond:

Vernal pools, also called vernal ponds or ephemeral pools, are seasonal pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe development of natal amphibian and insect species unable to withstand competition or predation by fish. Certain tropical fish lineages (such as killifishes) have however adapted to this habitat specifically.

Vernal pools are a type of wetland. They can be surrounded by many communities/species including deciduous forest, grassland, lodgepole pine forest, blue oak woodland, sagebrush steppe, succulent coastal scrub and prairie. These pools are characteristic of Mediterranean climates, but occur in many other ecosystems.

An inundated rock vernal pool on Enchanted Rock. Note the one inhabited by cacti in the background.
During most years, a vernal pool basin will experience inundation from rain/precipitation, followed by desiccation from evapotranspiration. These conditions are commonly associated with Mediterranean climate such as the Central Valley of California.[1] Vernal pool basins are often characteristics of Mediterranean climates, but occur in many other ecosystems, such as forested areas of the Canadian Shield, where they are difficult to identify because of the forest canopy.[2] Most pools are dry for at least part of the year, and fill with the winter rains, spring snowmelts and rising water tables. Some pools may remain at least partially filled with water over the course of a year or more, but all vernal pools dry up periodically. Typically, though, a vernal pool has three phases each year: it is inundated in the winter (inundated phase) with the vernal pool holding onto the water from 10–65 days, it dries slowly during the spring (flowering phase), and it dries completely during the summer (dry phase). Vernal pools favor native species because many non-native species cannot tolerate the extreme seasonal changes in environmental conditions. (Wikipedia)

Whatever it is I thought it would make a worthwhile subject


Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GX85 and Lumix G Vario 14-140 f3.5-5.6