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Helmsley remains transfer halted |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Sunday, 31 July 2005 |
By LEN MANIACE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
July 28, 2005
SLEEPY HOLLOW — A final real estate move by Harry Helmsley, the New York City tycoon who died in 1997, struck a roadblock this week when Sleepy Hollow interrupted a plan to transfer his remains from a mausoleum in the Bronx to a new one to be built in the village.
Construction of Helmsley's 1,300-square-foot mausoleum on a hilltop in historic Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was halted by village officials Monday morning because the project had neither a building permit nor a planning approval from Village Hall.
"They clear-cut the site and started bringing in cement mixers to start construction. That is way beyond anything that is tolerable in the village," Sleepy Hollow Mayor Philip Zegarelli said yesterday.
Helmsley's remains are being moved from Woodlawn Cemetery because his widow, Leona, wanted a more secluded resting place, said Howard Rubenstein, the publicist and spokesman for the family. A community mausoleum that was built last year on a vacant field next to Helmsley's mausoleum intruded on that seclusion, according to published reports.
"They examined many cemeteries, and they liked this one. It was secluded. It was a large site. And it faced the old Rockefeller site," said Rubenstein, referring to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills.
As famous as Helmsley had become for his extensive real estate holdings, which included the Empire State Building, Leona had become infamous as "the Queen of Mean" after a series of run-ins with employees of the Helmsley hotels she operates.
The new Helmsley mausoleum — measuring 36 by 37 feet and 17 feet tall, according to the plan — resembles a Greek temple, complete with Doric columns, fitting for a member of New York's real estate royalty.
Not that Helmsley's current resting place would be called shabby. Located in Woodlawn Cemetery, the historic Bronx cemetery known as the final home for such notables as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Herman Melville and Joseph Pulitzer, the Helmsley Mausoleum features a stained-glass window of the New York skyline.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, occupying 85 acres on North Broadway, is no slouch either when it comes to historic inhabitants, including Washington Irving, industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Walter Chrysler, as well as pioneering labor leader Samuel Gompers.
When construction was stopped Monday, the builders already had poured about half of the foundation, said Sean McCarthy, village building inspector/village architect. At least seven trees had been cut on the site, he said.
The omission was not intentional, said Helmsley publicist Rubenstein, adding that Sleepy Hollow village had not required building permits or site-plan approvals for 200 structures previously built in the cemetery.
"There was no intention to avoid the issue," Rubenstein said. The family plans to comply with village rules, he said.
A 2004 change in local law required all buildings in the village of 9,200 to go before the Planning Board to be reviewed, a stricter rule than previously existed, McCarthy said. Building permits always were required for mausoleums, a rule that was not always followed, he said.
The village intends to enforce the law equally, inside and outside the cemetery, Mayor Zegarelli said yesterday.
"This is a sizable piece of construction," Zegarelli said. "Yes, it is in a cemetery, but it needs to follow the same rules and regulations."
The nonsectarian Sleepy Hollow Cemetery plans to build a community mausoleum, which also will need to undergo a village Planning Board review and obtain a building permit, village officials said.
"We welcome everyone — whether they are living or dead — in our village," Zegarelli said. "We probably have more people buried in Sleepy Hollow than are walking our streets."
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050728/NEWS02/507280318/1018 |
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” Epicurus
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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