Trinity Churchyard, Manhattan, New York

The Gothic Revival Trinity Church (note the amazing bronze doors) is dwarfed by Skyscrapers in the Financial District, including the 50-story art deco Irving Trust Co. Building (1931) at 1 Wall St. The first church was built in 1698, the current building was built in 1839 by Richard Upjohn. The cemetery is static as burials below Canal St. have been banned for many decades. The graveyard's inhabitants and markers provide one of the richest concentrations of colonial history to be found anywhere. In fact, Francis Lewis is buried here, the only signer of the Declaration of Independence to be buried in New York.

Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804) is buried here, having died in a duel in Weehawken, NJ, with Aaron Burr. Although most duels were ritualistic acts of bravery, with shots deliberately sent wide, Burr chose to take true aim and mortally wounded Hamilton in the abdomen.

The mid-18th century headstones sport skull & crossbones and other whimsical features, almost cartoonesque.

Halloween Nor'easter, Bristol, CT

This is what happens when snow falls on trees BEFORE the leaves fall ! One appreciates how clever nature is, but it can occasionally become outfoxed ! Btw, a Nor'easter describes a low-pressure area whose center of rotation is just off the East Coast and whose leading winds in the left forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast.

Inspiration Point, Manhattan, New York, NY

Inspiration Point Shelter, on Henry Hudson Parkway at 190th Street, opened in 1925 as a resting place for pedestrians and leisure drivers. Designed by architect Gustave Steinacher in 1924, the neoclassical sitting area opened a year later and quickly became a favorite of Hudson River tourists. It was a stopping point for drivers and walkers along the Riverside Drive, and at one point, wrote Christopher Gray in his 1989 book Changing New York: The Architectural Scene, the structure originally had bathrooms and a roof. But after Robert Moses built the Henry Hudson Parkway in the 1930s, Inspiration Point was cut off from the rest of Manhattan — and it began decades of decline. The city renovated the structure soon after Gray’s book was published — although the bathrooms and the roof were permanently done away with. It remains under the control of the Parks Department. A short ride further north and one can see the remains of the Cornelius Billings Estate, the grand stone gallery that once marked the beginning of the 1600 ft long drive to the main house (see p. 5, The New York Times, Jan 11, 2009) is now accessible from Ft. Tryon Park.

Little Red Lighthouse, Manhattan, New York, NY

The lighthouse was first established in 1889 at Sandy Hook, NJ. It was reconstructed in 1921 on the Hudson, operational until 1947. It was made famous by the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift and Lynd Ward. The "great gray bridge" is clearly the George Washington Bridge, though it is not named in the book. Construction on the bridge began in 1927, only 6 years after the lighthouse was erected at its current location, and concluded in 1931. The proposed dismantling of the lighthouse in 1951 resulted in a public outcry, largely from fans of Swift's book, leading to the preservation of the lighthouse by the City of New York/Parks & Recreation. Note the Homeland Security watch station.

Hamilton Heights, Harlem, Manhattan, New York

This area of northern Manhattan is anchored by the City College of New York, which relocated its campus in 1897 to Hamilton Heights between Amsterdam and Edgecombe Aves, with 141 St. as its northern border. "Combe" is an English word for valley. George B. Post's Collegiate Gothic buildings (popular on Ivy League campuses) were constructed of gray Manhattan schist quarried on the site and ornamented with white terra cotta. The style symbolized the fact that the education received by the poor and immigrant residents was comparable to the nation's most prestigious schools. Main or Shepard Hall has a magnificent auditorium known as the Great Hall. The campus is bisected by Convent Ave., which contains beautiful Beaux-Arts row houses north of campus. This area became known as "Sugar Hill" because it attracted black middle class residents with money (sugar).

Pres. Hamilton's 1801 Federal style Grange (named for his ancestral manor in Scotland) has been relocated in the past few years nestled within St. Nicholas Park, resembling its original environment, moved from its former spot to the north of St. Luke's Episcopal Church (R.H. Robertson, 1891). This was the 2nd relocation as it had been donated to the Church in 1889. Across the street on Convent are row houses with extensive use of cartouches, shield-like forms (photo). Hamilton Terrace, originally a private street, is also rich in architectural texture. Some row houses feature stylized byzantine carvings on the window oriels. St. Nicholas Ave (729-731) features a mansion completely done in schist, thought to be the only example in New York City.

On 149 St. west of Convent Ave. is a modern cantilevered church modeled after Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp in France. Some large mansions are on St. Nicholas Place, including the James A. Bailey (#10) residence (photo, scaffolding) of Barnum & Bailey fame, reminiscent of a medieval castle. Another large mansion, the Nicholas Benziger House (1890) is at 345 Edgecombe Ave. (photo, fire hydrant).

Trinity Church Cemetery, Upper Manhattan, New York

This is one of three cemeteries associated with Trinity Church (in the Financial District at Wall St. and Broadway), located at 153-155 Sts., between Amsterdam Ave. and Riverside Drive. It is the only remaining active cemetery in Manhattan. John James Audubon is among the most notable burials. Indeed, he donated the 35 acres for the cemetery. His grave is decorated with animals.

Lake Avenue Cemeteries, Bristol, Connecticut

Two distinctively different small cemeteries are to be found on Lake Ave. on the road to Lake Compounce, the Beth Israel Cemetery and the Lake Avenue Cemetery.

Rumor has it that the Beth Israel Cemetery has the dubious distinction of a listing in Ripley's Believe It or Not as the oldest cemetery to have no occupants as of 1954, having been created in 1929. Perhaps of greatest interest is one headstone with a brass Matzevah marker signaling that the young man was a Holocaust survivor. This plaque has a Jewish star entangled with barbed wire and an olive branch. The brass markers are provided by the The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & Their Descendants (http://www.amgathering.org/).

The Lake Avenue Cemetery was established in 1841, and has at least one Civil War soldier's gravestone (photo, Anson W. Ball), presumably the family's gravestone on the ground (in two pieces), with an upright gravestone from the State in recognition of the soldier. J. Harwood “Stretch” Norton, a former owner of Lake Compounce, ex-mayor and a World War II veteran who saw kamikazes plunging into ships off Okinawa, is one of the more recent buried.