Work continues — albeit at what seems to be a snail’s pace — at rehabilitating the landmarked Weir Greenhouse at 5th Avenue and 25th Street, opposite Green-Wood Cemetery’s main entrance; it is hoped that sometime soon, the greenhouse will become the Cemetery’s visitor center.
The Weir Greenhouse, plopped as it is across the street from Greenwood Cemetery at 5th Avenue and 25th Street in an area with auto repair shops and warehouses, stands out like a jewel in this otherwise nondescript Brooklyn corner.
The Cemetery acquired the greenhouse as far back as 2012 and obtained a $500,000 grant towards restoration from New York State’s Regional Economic Development Council the following year. The Landmarks Preservation Commission approved renovations in 2015, and work commenced in 2016.
James Weir opened the floral business with plant nurseries and greenhouses in Yellow Hook, in what is now Bay Ridge, in the 1850s. After a yellow fever epidemic struck the area, taking a heavy toll, Weir proposed renaming Yellow Hook as Bay Ridge, since it was built along a hill facing Upper New York Bay. The region formally approved the name change in 1853. The first Weir greenhouse appeared in 1880, and the second, designed by George Curtis Gillespie, is the one on-site today.
The Weir family owned the greenhouse until 1971 when it was acquired by McGovern Florist, which operated its business here until 2011.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
9/29/20
5 comments
Always remember passing it on the 5th Avenue bus.
What will it be used as once the renovations are completed?
As it says, a visitors center.
I’m having a hard time figuring out the purpose of a “visitor center” at a cemetery.
WOW, my grandfather was James E. Weir….he lived on Long Island but sold flowers at this, his location!!! Su Weir