On the Harlem Line with Rachmaninoff and The Babe

I visited Westchester County, New York this past weekend and on Sunday my brother and I made a trip to a graveyard. It was a nice day, what else were we going to do?

Along Grand Central Station's Metro-North Harlem Rail Line and the Taconic State Parkway in the vicinity of Valhalla there are a series of cemeteries - Kensico, Gate of Heaven, Mt. Eden, Mt. Pleasant, etc. - forming a sort of "cemetery row." We advanced a number of theories as to why there might be so many graveyards along this strip, but came to no conclusions. Regardless, these cemeteries are the final resting place of quite a few famous New Yorkers.

At Kensico Cemetery, high on a hill, across the street from the Actor's Fund obelisk, and surrounded by a hedge of tall yews, we found the final resting place of none other than composer, pianist and conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff, his wife, Natalie, and their daughter, Princess Irina Volkonsky.


High on a hill, surrounded by a hedge of tall yews...

Mr. Rachmaninoff died in 1943, but not before he played Celebrity Series piano recitals in 1939, '40, '41, and '42 and at least one pre-Celebrity Series Aaron Richmond engagement in 1925. He did a few other notable things along the way that you also may be aware of...

Because of his history with the Celebrity Series, Rachmaninoff's grave was the perfect find for this blog, but in the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that we didn't go to Kensico Cemetery looking for Sergei Rachmaninoff. Our goal was this marker down the street at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery:

We found The Babe, then went looking for Lou Gerhig at Kensico and found Harry Frazee (never heard of Frazee? follow the link). Mr. Frazee's grave was free of any evidence of vandalism (Still lost? see story), and he is no doubt resting more comfortably since 2004:



Frazee more or less brought us to Rachmaninoff and we have come full circle.

This Cemetery Row is quite an impressive strip of real estate. Kensico Cemetery alone is the eternal resting place of author and playwright Paddy Chayefsky, actor Danny Kaye, swing-era trombonist Tommy Dorsey, author Ayn Rand, baseball star Lou Gehrig, aviatrix Harriet Quimby, actress Billie Burke and her showman husband, Florenz Ziegfeld, composer Peter DeRose, soprano Geraldine Ferrar, radio announcer William B. Williams, and RCA Chairman David Sarnoff.

Don't worry I won't post all my vacation adventures like this...unless they have interesting cemeteries at the beach, of course.