Greenwood Heights

Hark! The Weir Greenhouse has a gleaming new dome

Green-Wood Cemetery is turning the greenhouse into a visitors' center

May 17, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
That's the Weir Greenhouse's new copper dome peeking over a construction fence. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan
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All that glitters is not gold.

That new dome you see, glowing above the construction fence that surrounds the Weir Greenhouse, is made of copper.

White tarps that were shielding the delicate greenhouse from winter weather during its renovation have been removed. And behold. That new octagonal dome is quite the eye-catcher.

The landmarked greenhouse, which stands on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 25th Street across from Green-Wood Cemetery, is being restored for use as the nucleus of a visitors’ center for the historic graveyard.

Some 250,000 people pass through the gates of the famed cemetery each year. But it does not have a visitors’ center.

Green-Wood bought the greenhouse at 750 Fifth Ave. in Greenwood Heights plus an adjacent property for $1.625 million in 2012, city Finance Department records show.

The Victorian commercial greenhouse is the last surviving building of its kind in New York City. It was built in 1895.

In 2015, Green-Wood bought another property adjacent to the Weir Greenhouse, namely 242 25th St., for $1.5 million, Finance Department records show. A building that formerly served as Brooklyn Monument Co.’s headquarters stands on that property.

Cemetery officials plan to use the adjacent property to construct a new building that will be part of the visitors’ center. But the city Landmarks Preservation Commission gave a thumbs-down to proposed designs for the new building that were drawn up by architect Page Ayres Cowley.

In January, Green-Wood President Richard J. Moylan revealed to the Brooklyn Eagle that the cemetery might hire a new architect to create a fresh design for the proposed building.

There was no word Wednesday from the cemetery about whether a new architect has been hired.      

 

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