At Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklynites remembered loved ones lost on 9/11 where they rest, rather than where they lost their lives. 

More than 100 victims of 9/11 are interred at the cemetery — 78 who lost their lives that day, and dozens more who died from Ground Zero-related illnesses in the years after. As the sun set on Sept. 11, 2024, Brooklynites gathered among the gravestones overlooking the Manhattan skyline. There were no suited-up military or police personnel or politicians, no big speeches. 

Musician George Stass sang quiet renditions of “Fire and Rain,” and “Wildflowers,” and “Every Grain of Sand.” When the sky was dark and the Tribute in Light visible against the sky, two Green-Wood staffers stood to read a list of more than 70 names — most of whom are buried at there, some who are not. 

Gabrielle Gatto, coordinator of public programs at Green-Wood, and Theresa Wozunk, a death counselor, worked together to plan the event, a departure from their usual memorials.  

The idea for a quiet evening memorial came to them last year, Wozunk said, and they worked with the 9/11 Museum and Memorial to organize Wednesday’s event, centered around the Tribute in Light. 

“I’ve always thought it would be such a beautiful viewing point, and a really safe space for New Yorkers who don’t feel comfortable going to the museum but want to pay their respects in a way,” Wozunk said. “And what a great, beautiful place to sit and reflect.”

More than two decades after the attacks, some New Yorkers struggle with big memorials, like the reading of the names of victims at the 9/11 Memorial on the footsteps of the Twin Towers. Gothamist reported that in the last year, only 6% of visitors to the 9/11 Museum were from New York City. Green-Wood wanted to offer those people a peaceful place to grieve together.

The cemetery now serves as a sort of community space, Gatto said, especially since the pandemic, when many Brooklynites found peace and solace walking the grounds. The 9/11 ceremony was an extension of that ethos, a chance for people to grieve different people in different ways. Gatto included her uncle, a former FDNY captain who died in 2016 from 9/11-related cancer, in the list of names. 

“My uncle is not interred here, but we continue to memorialize him in many different ways,” she said. “This can be a place of memorialization for anyone, anyone that needs to grieve and maybe do it in an accessible place that doesn’t have to be so charged, or they just have an area to kind of peel off to.” 

Dozens of Brooklynites settled in on Green-Wood’s hills for the ceremony, some in large groups, others separated in pairs or alone on the grass. A few asked Gatto and Wozunk to include their loved ones’ names in the reading.

Matt Pinner sat on a set of low stairs with his two-year-old daughter. He moved to New York City from Colorado in 2020, and said that while his experience of 9/11 was different from those who lived in the city at the time, he knew he and his family wanted to acknowledge the day in some way — which brought them to Green-Wood. 

“It’s a unifying event, I like ritual and ceremonies and traditions,” he said. “Anything that brings people together, gives you an excuse to go out in the world and be among people. We all grieve together. No one should do that alone.” 

Andrew Schneider attended the ceremony on his own, to support a friend who was playing music there. He moved to New York City in 2003, when the city was still reeling in the aftermath of the attacks. On Sept. 11, 2003, he said, the anniversary had a palpable presence, one that has dissipated somewhat with time. 

He didn’t lose anyone on 9/11, and felt at first like he shouldn’t be there at the memorial. But he wanted to hold space for the people that did, and remember their loved ones with them. 

The memorial felt different, too, because he recently lost his father Elroy. Grieving is a long and complex process, he said, one he just started — but finding a space to grieve collectively felt good.

“I was over here before, I was thinking memorials are so nice because they’re in honor of the people who are no longer with us, but they’re for the people who are still here,” he said. 

Included on the list of names read at Green-Wood on Wednesday were Joseph Agnello, Peter Vega, and Vernon Cherry, three Brooklyn Heights firefighters who were found together and buried side-by-side; and Monique De Jesus, a 29-year-old administrative assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald. 

Schneider said he watched a lot of old videos of his father after he died all on VHS, with the fuzzy quality associated with the medium. The news footage from 9/11 has the same quality, he said. 

“When I hear the names, I picture those people in that media form, like frozen in time, like they didn’t age with us,” he said. “Things got more HD, more crystally-clear. And those memories, they’re not fading, but they take on a different sort of quality because of the medium that they were on.”

Wozunk also wanted to pay tribute to Green-Wood itself, and the people who worked there during and after 9/11.

“The cemetery itself was integral in 9/11, and what this place has absorbed for various tragedies over the years is monumental,” she said. “The role that our gravediggers played, the role that our president played on that day and the months after, I just think is something to be celebrated and heralded.”

Cemetery workers were faced with the tragedy head on, she said, as they were tasked with laying victims to rest. They grappled with similar circumstances during the pandemic, when thousands were dying from the virus. 

Isaac Feliciano, a now-retired Green-Wood foreman, lost his wife Rosa on 9/11. The smoke and fire were visible from the cemetery. 

“He was here at work and had to see everything and still carry on and make sure he could be there for other families and for his own,” Gatto said. “We call [cemetery workers] last responders … it’s holding space for families, in those very last and final moments.”

Rosa is buried at Green-Wood, and her name was read on Wednesday night. In 2011, Feliciano told the Daily News that he would not visit Ground Zero to remember his wife — he much preferred to honor her at Green-Wood, under the memorial tree he planted for her. 

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The eye-catching St. John’s College, which takes up a quarter of a block on Lewis Avenue between Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street, will shortly reopen as an apartment complex after an impressive adaptive reuse project converts the campus to residential units.

While the majority of the historic buildings remain unaltered on the exterior, the oldest wing, which ran along Willoughby Avenue, was demolished and is being replaced by a similar new building that has topped out.

A housing lottery has recently opened for the entire project, which has taken the address 788 Willoughby Avenue. St. John’s College previously had the address of 75 Lewis Avenue.

The first wing of the Romanesque Revival pile, College Hall, opened in 1870 on the corner of Willoughby and Lewis. The rest of the buildings were in place by 1872. Designed by architect Patrick Keely and built by the Catholic Church, the four- and five-story red brick buildings surrounding a central courtyard are notable for their multicolored slate mansard roofs, arched windows, a round corner tower, a domed cupola, and a two-story-high bay window and entrance canopy on Lewis Avenue. The college relocated to Queens in the 1950s.

Since then, the Bed-Stuy complex has housed an array of religious schools and service organizations, including the New Horizons Adult Education Center. Plans to convert the complex to rental apartments have been in the works since at least 2015, but until recently little seemed to be happening and the property’s future appeared unclear.

Despite its impressive architecture and significance in Bed-Stuy’s history, the campus is not landmarked, meaning the developers could have demolished the entire structure. The decision to adapt the buildings for a new use may have been made because they are already larger than what could have been built under existing zoning. As well, the site was deemed eligible for the National Register in 2020 and therefore could potentially receive tax credits for adaptive reuse through the National Park Service.

The conversion to apartments was facilitated through a deal between a private developer and the Roman Catholic Church, which still owns the site and the massive stone St. John’s the Baptist Roman Catholic Church next door at 333 Hart Street. (The latter is still operating as a church, its online event calendar shows.)

According to city records, the Roman Catholic Church leased the site that includes the college campus but not the church to 75 Lewis Avenue LLC, with signatories Matthew and Frank Linde of Property Resources Corporation (or PRC), in 2018. The documents show the LLC paid $14.193 million for the ground lease, set to expire in 2067. The deal included air rights from the church building so the developers could increase the floor area of the new building, documents show.

The new wing along Willoughby Avenue will have eight stories, and altogether the conversion will create 205 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments, according to Department of Buildings permits and the architect’s website. Woods Bagot Architects is behind the design.

Renderings show the new wing will be six stories, not eight, and will closely resemble the one it replaced in coloring, form, and height, although the details will be modern. Its mansard roof, brick color, and window placement match those of the other buildings. Recessed brickwork in a checker pattern will ornament the under-window spaces and corners of the new build. Protruding brickwork will create a striped effect on the lower floors, where a modern entrance canopy will rise two stories.

A recent visit to the site revealed College Hall has been razed, and the replacement building has topped out. While the new wing is completely covered in scaffolding and netting, some of the brick detailing around the windows is visible.

The remaining administrative building, which sits in the middle of Lewis Avenue, and seminary wing, which runs along Hart Street, have emerged from scaffolding and look as grand as ever. They are, however, still behind a green construction fence.

The housing lottery for the 48 income restricted and rent stabilized apartments in the revamped complex, now dubbed The Hartby, recently opened for households earning 130 percent of Area Median Income, or $85,543 to $218,010 a year. At that level of AMI, allowed by the 421-a tax program from which the development benefits, rents for lottery units are typically close to market-rate prices. Studios in this lottery go for for $2,495 a month, one-bedrooms for $2,795, and two-bedroom units rent for $3,939.

Renderings show units with mostly white, minimalist, somewhat generic interiors, enlivened with interesting historic features. These include rounded corners and bays with windows, a wood-paneled wall surrounding a large round window, and arched windows.

Floor plans show a 409-square-foot studio, 526-square-foot one-bedroom, and 855-square-foot two-bedroom. Building amenities include a roof terrace, parking, electric car charging stations, an attended lobby, business center, gym, party room, shared laundry room, bike storage, and dog washing station.

The complex is set to open sometime this fall.

This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Brownstoner