World's Greatest Cemeteries

- [Roberto] In this episode of "World's Greatest Cemeteries."

- So it was the Martha Coston flare that was used the night that the Titanic sank.

- Grover Washington Jr.

It's a powerful moment in modern music history.

- We have a deer issue and we can't have roses over there.

So we repurpose them over here, because the deer don't eat them.

- The laurel wreath, signs of honor going back to Greek and Roman times.

- And there they are, facing each other in mortal combat at the Battle of Gettysburg.

- Yes.

(dramatic music) The "World's Greatest Cemeteries" hold more than mortal remains.

They are monuments to landscape, design, horticulture, and history.

(dramatic music) I've spent years investigating the lives of the dead, finding out all I can about extraordinary people who were outsiders in their own day, but still managed to make significant contributions to humankind.

(dramatic music) Welcome to "World's Greatest Cemeteries."

(bright music) Welcome to Philadelphia.

Today, Philly is known for hoagie sandwiches, sports legends Wilt Chamberlain and Dave Schultz, and world class musicians like the Philadelphia Orchestra and Grover Washington Jr. (bright music) Today we're here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Laurel Hill Cemetery and we have with us today Nancy Goldenberg, President and CEO.

- Thank you.

Welcome to Laurel Hill, Roberto.

- Nancy, this place is gorgeous.

- [Nancy] Thank you so much.

- [Roberto] When was it created?

- It started in 1836.

- So 1836, that puts its smack at the beginning of the rural garden cemetery movement worldwide, yes?

- Yes, indeed, yes.

- And there is a tragic story behind the motivation for the founding of this place, and what is that?

- Yes, John Smith had a young daughter who unfortunately died and she was buried in a graveyard, as they were back then.

And he went to visit her and was really appalled by the condition that he found her grave.

- Mm-hm.

- So he was motivated and made it his life's mission to create a rural cemetery.

- Laurel Hill encompasses the original 1836 cemetery, just outside Philadelphia, and West Laurel Hill Cemetery, founded in 1870 in the nearby suburban town of Bala Cynwyd.

Laurel Hill excluded African Americans until 1973.

Historic Black cemeteries in this area include the Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, where famed soprano Marian Anderson is buried.

(gentle piano music) (wind howling) So these cemeteries have a lot of people interred in them, but here we have Martha Coston, who was an early entrepreneur, government contractor, and inventor.

Who was Martha Coston?

- It was very rare for women to be inventors.

And Martha Coston was the wife of an early inventor named Benjamin Coston, but unfortunately he died at the age of 27.

- 27 years old.

- Mm.

- Wow, that's tough.

- She, after he died, she had four young children and her mother and herself to take care of.

She took a look through her husband's papers and found an unfinished design for signal flares for boats to use.

- Now, this is important because, you know, prior to this, boats or ships would use a system of flags, right, to signal to each other.

But that doesn't work at night.

- No.

- Right?

So, these signal flares become a very important item for navies.

- Yes.

- Right, okay.

- And in particular, at the outbreak of the Civil War, once she had perfected this unfinished design, she got a contract with the United States Navy to supply them with signal flares.

- Okay, amazing.

But she also has a factory that makes these flares.

- Yes.

So even though the United States Navy bought the patent from her, they weren't able to produce the actual signal flares at a financially reasonable price.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- Her factory could.

So they owned the patent, but she was the one creating and supplying the United States Navy with the signal flares.

- Fantastic.

And this begins to become an important turning point in the Civil War for the United States Navy.

- [Elizabeth] Yes.

- [Roberto] So what goes on after that?

- So, after that, because she was selling her signal flares at cost, it was estimated that she was owed about $120,000.

- Which is an astronomical sum of money in today's-- - It is.

- Yeah, wow.

- For over a decade, she was in the courts to try to recoup some of that money.

- Mm-hm.

- And eventually she settled for $15,000.

- That's quite a discount.

- It is a very big discount.

- Now, that's actually, that's a terrible business loss then, to her, right?

- It is.

- So, moving forward a little bit in time, there's this, this incident that most people have never heard of, right?

(both laugh) That happens that her signal flares play a part in and what is that?

- So, it was the Martha Coston flare that was used the night that the Titanic sank.

- So then, right here, Martha Coston, this Philadelphia lady, was somehow involved in the search and rescue of people on the Titanic many, many, years later.

- [Elizabeth] Absolutely.

- Let's move forward even further into the future and let's just talk about how she's honored.

- So, Martha dies in 1904, is buried here at Laurel Hill Cemetery, and finally in 2006, she gets the recognition that she deserves and she's inducted into the Inventor's Hall of Fame.

- It's just a wonderful story when people who had, for whatever reason, not gotten their due, even in their lifetime, finally get recognized.

- Absolutely.

(dramatic music) - [Roberto] Coming up later this episode: - You know, as a young teenager growing up in New York City playing saxophone, you couldn't play any gig in New York City without playing "Mister Magic."

(gentle piano music) (dramatic music) - So Andy, tell me about this guy, General Meade that I don't think people have really heard about.

Here's his headstone right here.

Who was George Gordon Meade?

- We consider him as to to be one of the greatest heroes of American history for a number of reasons.

- Mm-hm.

- And, of course, most notably is the fact of his engineering prowess.

He was a West Point graduate.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- [Anthony] He came out of West Point and became an engineer, a military engineer, a topographical engineer, but he was assigned to the Coastal Survey.

- But General Meade is not widely known for that.

He's known for something else.

- Well, of course.

- Something very important.

And listen, you know, since he's an Army General, let's talk about his military record.

- Very good.

Well, he did, he was in combat in the Mexican War, but not in charge of troops.

He was a staff officer and a staff engineer on the staff of General Zachary Taylor.

So they had to reduce the fortress at Vera Cruz.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- [Anthony] So they had a large staff of engineers, they're very good at siege work.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- And in fact, he came onto the staff of the General-in-Chief of the Army, who was Winfield Scott.

- [Roberto] Got it.

- And on the staff, he had a friend, a very close friend, an engineer, and they actually tented together for a time, Robert E. Lee.

So they were together in the Mexican War.

- But, but it's important, let me just say here that a key thing in the military is commanding troops.

- Yes, of course.

- And he was not doing that.

He was a staff officer all this time.

- That's right.

Through some political influence, he was able to receive a commission as Brigadier General of Pennsylvania Volunteers in August of 1861.

And he was assigned to Command a Brigade in the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, which is the origin of the Pennsylvania National Guard.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- And then he saw combat with them in the opening battles, Second Bull Run, the Seven Days campaign, on the Peninsula.

He is competent.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- [Anthony] He's learning.

He's good with the men, he's a good disciplinarian.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- And he rises, not on bluster or bravado, but on competence.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- And so he is Brigade Command to Division Command to Corps Command, up the scale.

- [Roberto] Yep.

- And on three days before the Battle of Gettysburg, he is ordered to take command of the entire Army.

So, he does his best.

- Mm-hm.

- He comes to battle at Gettysburg and he defeats Lee in three of the bloodiest days in American history.

51,000 casualties in three days.

- But what's fascinating about this is the human dimension.

These guys had worked together.

In fact, they were roommates or tent-mates earlier in the Army.

In the United States Army.

- [Anthony] Mm-hm.

- [Roberto] And there they are, facing each other in mortal combat at the Battle of Gettysburg.

- [Anthony] Yes.

- And this guy, who is relatively green compared to Lee, prevails.

- Yes.

(dramatic music) (gentle piano music) (jazzy music) - Grover Washington Jr. - Yes.

- Wow.

This man was a very powerful, he represents a powerful moment in modern music history, where he makes that transition from jazz to what became known as smooth jazz.

And I played in a band, in college, and we played some of his recordings back in the '70s, you know.

But he's such an important musician.

But let's talk about that later.

Right now, let's talk about this unusual funerary monument.

- Mm-hm.

- There's an image of him, of course, playing the saxophone on top.

And here he is with his beloved wife, Christine, who is still with us.

- [Sarah] Yes.

- But there's an inscription from Kahlil Gibran.

Would you please read it to us?

- Sure.

"If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, "we shall speak again together "and you shall sing to me a deeper song."

- [Roberto] Wow.

- [Sarah] It's beautiful.

- [Roberto] That's beautiful.

- [Sarah] It's absolutely beautiful.

- Gosh.

Well, tell me about how he passed away.

- Well, I think as an artist, he went the best possible way.

He had just appeared on a television show and had performed and apparently had done really well at an extended set, done a really good job, and he went back in the green room and apparently had a heart attack and died.

And I remember reading that, and of course, you're so sorry to hear that, but also thinking what a way to go.

It's right after you did exactly what you loved to do.

And he was so good at it.

- [Roberto] Grover Washington Jr. was a jazz-funk saxophonist who had several number one hits in the 1970s and '80s, including "Mister Magic" and "Winelight."

He is widely considered to be a musical innovator.

He came from a musical family.

In the Army, Washington met noted jazz drummer Billy Cobham.

Through Cobham, Washington met other musicians and began playing on their recordings, including with Bill Withers and fellow Philadelphians Patti LaBelle and Phyllis Hyman.

To find out more about Washington, I went to Boston and interviewed a well-known jazz musician.

(Najee playing flute) Najee is a multi-platinum Grammy nominated saxophonist and flautist who has performed with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, and Prince.

Najee had the honor of being mentored by Grover Washington Jr. - Well, I like to think my relationship with Grover goes before I met him, honestly.

You know, as a young teenager growing up in New York City playing saxophone, you couldn't play any gig in New York City without playing "Mister Magic."

My first meeting with Grover Washington Jr. was when we were in college, my brother Fareed had written some songs for Grover and he had me play soprano.

And we drove down to Philly and we went to Grover's house and Grover allowed us to come in the house and play our songs for him.

That one experience provided the fire for where I am today.

- [Roberto] Washington's honors included platinum and Grammy Awards for "Just the Two of Us" with Bill Withers.

Washington was a basketball fan.

The second track on his "Winelight" album was dedicated to the Philadelphia 76ers basketball star, Julius Irving, known as Dr. J. Washington is credited as one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre, influencing, among others, Najee, Kenny G, Walter Beasley, Pamela Williams, Boney James, and many others.

(upbeat music) Now, I gotta say, I've never seen a funerary monument quite like this one.

And I love the bleacher seats.

So for people who are not from Philly, who was Harry Kalas?

- Well, people who are not from Philly might know Harry as the voice of NFL films.

He narrated NFL films and hosted them for many, many years.

But if you were a Phillies fan, then this was Uncle Harry, the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 until his death in 2009.

He was the play-by-play radio and TV announcer for hundreds, if not thousands of Phillies games, including several World Series.

His byword was "That ball is outta here!"

(Roberto laughs) And it wasn't a good Phillies game unless you heard that at least once.

- Okay, I gotcha, I gotcha.

Now, look at these tributes.

- Yes.

- [Roberto] This is something.

So this, I mean, I notice if you scan here, there's a lot of coins, right?

And there's a little cup.

A baseball, that makes total sense.

- [Thomas] Mm-hm.

- [Roberto] A bat.

- [Thomas] A bat and what I hope is a lei.

- [Roberto] A lei, okay.

And little glasses.

- [Thomas] There's even a little pin here of a little microphone.

- Oh, you're right, a little microphone pin.

That's really something.

Now, what about the bleacher seats?

- These are from Veterans-- - You can't make this up.

- This is from Veterans Stadium.

Have a seat.

- Yeah, okay.

- This was Philadelphia's famed baseball stadium.

I guess, you know, our version of Fenway Park.

- [Roberto] Right.

- And Harry announced the first game there in 1971.

He announced the last game in 2003.

- Right.

- And he announced the first game in Citizens Bank Park, our current baseball stadium.

(rock music) (gentle piano music) (dramatic music) - I'm here with Gregg Tepper, who's senior horticulturalist.

Gregg is gonna take us on a tour of this incredible garden.

What's the name of it?

- [Gregg] It was originally called the Shrubbery.

- [Roberto] Okay.

- Today's term for it is the Medallion Garden, because of its shape.

However, originally it was a collection of really some interesting shrubs.

And you're gonna love this little part, too.

It was so popular when it was planted that the people being buried said, "I want to be buried there."

(Roberto laughs) - [Roberto] That's great.

- [Gregg] It was just gorgeous.

- [Roberto] That's great.

- So we continue that tradition today, making it, making it beautiful.

It is filled, unfortunately, so.

- I gotcha.

- [Gregg] Yes.

(laughs) - What I love is you have a mixture of heirloom plants and modern plants and hybrids.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

- What's this right here?

- [Gregg] So, this is actually one of an heirloom rose.

We do not know the name of it.

It actually came from my parents' yard.

- Okay.

- And it is just incredible.

And there's a last blossom here, which I have to have you smell.

- [Roberto] Okay.

- It's just about fading.

- Oh, man, that is fantastic.

- It's incredible.

Isn't that amazing?

- I wish you could smell this.

Okay.

- Many of our heirloom roses, the thing about them is they only bloom one time of year, in June.

However, when they bloom, they are profuse.

- [Roberto] Right.

- [Gregg] And they smell really good.

- [Roberto] That is amazing.

- Also, disease issues, very uncommon.

And for pruning, it's a real simple thing.

I basically deadhead.

- Right.

- And then let the rest of the shrub do its own.

Yep.

- Fantastic.

- Yeah.

- Okay, good, let's keep going, then, okay?

- Okay, sounds good.

Yep.

- All right.

Now, this heirloom rose bush has an interesting looking leaf.

And you talked about this and deer.

Tell us about that.

(Gregg laughs) - So one of the things at our other location, Laurel Hill West, we have a deer issue.

And we can't have roses over there.

So we repurpose them over here because the deer don't eat them.

And when they were over there, the ones I found they ate less were some of the heirloom roses that have very coarse foliage.

Whereas some of the newer roses with more tender foliage seems to be what the deer like.

- Isn't that fascinating?

- Yeah.

- It's almost as if these old guys sort of evolved, you know, right?

- [Gregg] Yes.

- [Roberto] To get used to their environment and repel deer.

- And again, pruning on them couldn't be easier.

I just, I just do a little bit of tip pruning, clean my pruners in between so that disease doesn't spread, and we're good.

- Fantastic.

Okay, lead on, my friend.

- Sure thing.

(gentle music) (dramatic music) - So, Sarah, Philadelphia has many prominent African American citizens.

One of the reasons I'm fascinated by your cemetery is that you have people like Sadie and Raymond Alexander.

Who are these people?

- They are rock stars of the civil rights movement here in Philadelphia.

You hear a lot about the civil rights initiatives in the South, but Philadelphia had a very active civil rights community and events here.

And the Alexanders were at the heart of all of that.

- And this is actually before the National Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, right?

- [Sarah] Yeah.

That is correct.

So, the story really starts with the Alexanders, when they really begin to distinguish themselves, about 1921.

We have Sadie Alexander, who's from a very high achieving family.

- [Roberto] Mm-hm.

- [Sarah] She had a grandfather who was a bishop in the Methodist church.

She had an aunt who was the first African-American, male or female, to practice medicine in the state of Alabama.

And she had an uncle who was the first African American to graduate from the University of Penn Medical School.

She also, her father was a lawyer and he was the first African American to graduate from University of Pennsylvania's law school.

So, she had the bar pretty high.

- (laughs) I was gonna say.

- Achieving was what this family did.

And so she went to undergrad at University of Pennsylvania and then continued on and got a PhD in economics.

And she was the first African American, male or female, to get a PhD in economics in the United States.

- What era would this be, roughly?

- Oh, she got her PhD in 1921.

- In economics?

- In economics.

- Wow.

- And as you can imagine, Sadie was battling not only the restrictions of being a Black, but also the restrictions of being a woman.

- Right.

- So when she graduated with her doctorate, she could not find comparable employment.

She couldn't find anybody that was going to hire her.

She worked as an actuary at a Black-owned insurance company, briefly.

But her advisors and her family convinced her that probably the best thing to do would be to go to law school.

- Mm-hm.

- And she could really challenge the civil rights initiatives that she wanted to do by being a lawyer.

So she had met her husband while she was at Penn.

- Mm-hm.

- So Raymond and Sadie got married and then she started, about 1923, and then she started in at law school.

And she was the first African American admitted to University of Pennsylvania Law and the first African American woman to practice law in Pennsylvania.

- These are really-- - She was amazing.

- Yeah, amazing role models.

And again, I love that we can shine a spotlight on these people who were, you know, not perhaps as well known.

- Yes.

- But whose achievements were really legendary.

- [Sarah] Now, her husband, Raymond, who was a lawyer, when he graduated from Harvard Law, he was by the way, the first African American to attend the Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania.

When he graduated from Harvard Law, he could not find a law firm interested in hiring him, so we started his own.

(Roberto laughs) And he challenged, he took on the civil rights mantle and started challenging that left and right from a legal perspective.

Sadie joined his firm.

She did estate and family law.

And together, they were formidable, the Alexander and Alexander Law Firm.

- [Roberto] So this is really a power couple.

- [Sarah] It's a power couple.

They're like the rock stars of the cemetery.

- It's a pleasure for me to find out about them working with people like Sarah and bringing them out to you.

So next time you come to West Laurel Hill Cemetery, please come by and tip the hat.

Pay some respects to the great Alexander family.

Sarah, thank you so much.

- My pleasure.

- It's been a real pleasure.

(dramatic music) From 1919 to 1923, Sadie Tanner was the first national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a prominent college Greek society for African American women.

(gentle piano music) (dramatic music) So, this is fascinating.

A lot of people focus immediately on this piece, so let's do that.

- [Thomas] Okay.

- Let's take a look at this, which is an almost surreal phantasmagoric image.

What is happening here?

- You have this very enigmatic woman.

She could be an angel, she could be the spirit of death.

She is opening a sarcophagus and releasing the soul of the person inside.

You see this sort of burst of stone ectoplasm.

- Mm-hm.

- You see the person's face.

There's even a wing on one side, and it's this sort of strange swirl, ascending up to heaven.

- Let's talk about these common symbols and funerary iconography, okay?

So first of all, what sorts of leaves are these and why are they there?

- These are oak leaves and acorns.

And these are very common to signify a man's grave, which this is.

- Okay, got it.

And down here, these, the wreath.

- The laurel wreath, signs of honor going back to Greek and Roman times.

That's what you put on the head of a hero in the Olympic Games.

And they persisted into the 19th and 20th century.

- And again, these are very common symbols in these 19th century rural garden cemeteries.

- Exactly.

- Now, what about our friend, our little kitty here?

What's happening here?

- Well, you have, basically, this would be, you have this large loop at the bottom, so this would be how you would open the sarcophagus.

- I see.

- Again, these are two more stone sarcophagi that, again, another ancient classical motif symbol that was incorporated into the 19th century.

- Very good.

But the fact is these are not meant to be opened.

- No.

- Right?

These are simply symbolic.

- Exactly.

- Who would be doing the opening of these sarcophagi?

- Possibly our friend here, or the other lady over there, who looks like she's getting ready to open that one, to release their souls once they got through with theirs.

- Very good.

(gentle music) Join us all season long as we travel to the "World's Greatest Cemeteries," touring masterpieces of landscape, gardens, and culture, while reliving dramatic stories about diverse historical figures.

- "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

- Here lies the body of John Jack.

- When Celia Cruz passed away, thousands of people lined the street as we followed the funeral procession.

- Let's start with you telling us a bit about Herman Melville.

- Well, what we know about Melville and Woodlawn is he started out as a young man writing about the South Pacific.

- Well, the Chinese were actually brought here as contract workers after the Civil War.

- [Roberto] We'll discover artistic designs, check out stunning vistas, and uncover surprising facts about the past.

- Yes.

- Would he have known Louisa May Alcott?

- Oh, yes.

He actually took Louisa and actually Emerson's children out on nature walks.

- And at the bottom we see a common epitaph on Jewish monuments that symbolizes may their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life.

- Thank you so much for joining us.

See you next time on "World's Greatest Cemeteries."

(upbeat music) You can find out more about this episode, just get in touch, or tell us about your favorite cemetery or historical figure at www.worldsgreatestcemeteries.co.

(bright music) (dramatic music) (gentle music) (lively music) (bright music)