Battle Hill, also known as Gowan's Heights, the highest point in Brooklyn, is on cemetery grounds, rising approximately 216 feet (66 m) above sea level.

"[8] The architecture critic Paul Goldberger was quoted in The New York Times in 1977, saying, "it is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the [Central] Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-wood".

[20] Green-Wood Cemetery contains numerous landscape features, which in turn are named after terms that evoke a naturalistic scene.

These names include Camellia Path, Halcyon Lake, Oaken Bluff, Sylvan Cliff, and Vista Hill.

[23][24] Most of these regions have been landscaped to resemble the original plot, except the area near Fort Hamilton Avenue to the north, which is flatter because it was acquired last.

[21] There are several notable monuments and mausoleums in the cemetery, designed in several styles including the Classical, Egyptian, Gothic, and Romanesque.

[25][26] Some of monuments and mausoleums were designed by popular architects of the time, including Minard Lafever, Richard Upjohn, and Warren and Wetmore.

Numerous other monuments to notable figures exist but are extremely simple in design, such as the tombs of Samuel Morse, William M. Tweed, Lola Montez, Henry Ward Beecher, and Currier and Ives.

On the other hand, several monuments commemorate less well-known figures, including a Gothic memorial for 17-year-old Charlotte Canda, and a High Victorian pier designed by William or Edward Potter for their relatives.

[19][2] A descendant colony of monk parakeets that are believed to have escaped their containers while in transit now nests in the spires of the gate, as well as other areas in Brooklyn.

The corner porches feature stone banisters, and contain four yellow sandstone bas-reliefs sculpted by Moffitt.

[24][33] Acts of incorporation for "The Greenwood Cemetery" were passed on April 18, 1838, entitling the corporation to a capital of $300,000 and the right to 200 acres (81 ha) of land.

He opposed an early suggestion to call the cemetery a necropolis, as he thought the landscaped site should also attract the living.

These included the Dutch Protestant Reformed, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and German Lutheran churches of Brooklyn.

[38] The first additional acquisition in 1847 was for 65 acres (26 ha) at the southwest corner of the cemetery, adjacent to the contemporary border of the city of Brooklyn.

[38] In particular, the opening of the Fifth Avenue Elevated station at 25th Street, near the main entrance, proved to be a benefit to lot owners in Green-Wood Cemetery.

[38] One such structure was the Weir Greenhouse, located across from the 25th Street entrance; that building is now both a National Register of Historic Places listing and a city landmark.

In 1871, Border Water was partially eliminated to make extra burial space, and in 1874, the cemetery was slightly expanded to 440 acres (180 ha).

Also, an underground drainage system, extra roads, and a permanent stone fence were built through the late 1870s.

[59][56] At the turn of the century, an old engine house, stables, and several enclosures were being removed, while waiting rooms and restrooms were added at the southern entrance.

[33] Green-Wood has remained non-sectarian, but was generally considered a Christian burial place for white Anglo-Saxon Protestants of good repute.

However, the family of infamous political leader "Boss" Tweed managed to circumvent this rule even though he died in the Ludlow Street Jail.

The landscape was in decline by the late 1910s, but this was followed shortly after by dead-tree removals in the 1920s and a five-year road repaving project began in 1924.

The old main entrance was demolished in 1951, and four years later, the first new crematorium in New York City in a half-century was built at Green-Wood, with a columbarium.

[31] Further, construction of the last phase of the Hillside Mausoleum began in 2001, and the same year 50 victims of the September 11 attacks were buried there.

[70][71] On October 13, 2012, another Angel of Music was installed to replace the one vandalized in 1959, this one made by sculptors Giancarlo Biagi and Jill Burkee, was unveiled to memorialize Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

[72][73] Two weeks later, Hurricane Sandy toppled or damaged at least 292 of the mature trees, 210 gravestones, and 2 mausoleums in the cemetery.

[76] Green-Wood Cemetery's interments include a considerable number of notable people, including painter George Catlin, designer Louis Comfort Tiffany, painter Asher B. Durand, printmakers Nathaniel Currier and James Ives, and architects James Renwick Jr. and Richard Upjohn are among the artists interred in the cemetery.

There are other notable burials like the economist Henry George; Charles Ebbets; artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, conductor Leonard Bernstein;[79] rapper Bashar Barakah "Pop Smoke" Jackson;[80] physician J. Marion Sims;[34] poets Phoebe Cary and Alice Cary; and actor Frank Morgan.

[1][81] The Fort Hamilton Parkway Gate and the cemetery's chapel were designated as official New York City landmarks in 2016.