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GC040.JPG

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Wiarda Mausoleum Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn, New York Little seems to be known about John C. Wiarda, except that he left behind, for posterity, this beautiful Classical Revival mausoleum. Building a mausoleum is certainly no guarantee that one will be remembered forever. The families of the deceased often move or break up, endowment funds for mausoleums dry up and try as they might, cemetery officials just can’t seem to locate family members. In many cemeteries numerous plots have been bought and paid for, but plot owners have long since vanished without telling family members or willing the plots to anyone. Many states have laws stating that unclaimed plots revert back to the cemetery after a few decades. In New York, where Green-Wood cemetery is located, there is no such law and plots are sold in perpetuity. With the shortage of land for burial space in metropolitan areas, cemeteries like Green-Wood are lobbying the government to modify the law so they can reclaim the unused land and use it for new burials.