Cemeteries are rarely places of celebration, but that wasn’t the case at Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington on Thursday.
Members of the staff and the community gathered to mark the grand re-opening of the cemetery’s iconic bell tower.
“It’s a completion of a dream we’ve all had here for some time, to turn this into something beautiful and worthwhile,” said Jim Galante, the general manager of Nassau Knolls who has worked at the cemetery for almost four decades. “We couldn’t be happier with the way it worked out.”
The bell tower was built in 1940 and originally contained 18 tubular bells that were manufactured in Roslyn. Harsh weather and neglect caused the tower to fall into disrepair over the ensuing 20 years. Windows were broken or collapsed, and birds moved in. The bells deteriorated significantly by the late 1960s and were eventually removed.
Chimes rang out across the cemetery once again in April 2017, when new speakers were installed. Although there are no longer physical chimes in the tower, the new speakers can play over 600 different songs, including Christmas carols, patriotic songs and traditional hymns. It can also play more than just chimes, such as a rendition of “Taps” played on trumpet.
“I have a garden center around the corner and I hear the chimes during the day,” said Pat Lamberti, who is on the cemetery’s board of directors. “It is a relaxing thing to hear.”
The refurbished tower is meant to be seen, not just heard. This inside of the tower was not accessible to visitors for most of its existence, but shelving was added to the ground floor to create 214 niches for urns. The sale of the niche spaces — some of which had already been purchased — helped to fund the rehabilitation, Galante said.
The climate-controlled room also features three stained glass pieces by Indre McCraw, who formerly worked with Port Stained Glass but now operates out of Los Angeles. McCraw told Blank Slate Media in March that she wanted to show animals native to Port Washington — such as a fox, a rabbit and an osprey — and show the seasons of the year. One window even contains a small facsimile of the tower itself.
“Indre really did a good job, it was like she was in my head and knew exactly what I wanted,” said Ann Teitel, the assistant general manager for Nassau Knolls.
Teitel also thanked Galante for his hard work.
“[Thanks] to Jimmy, for getting this from where it was to the 90s to where it is today,” she said.
Galante credited Teitel for her vision, saying the stained glass was her idea. He also reminisced about some of the former Nassau Knolls employees who he had worked with for decades and had died before work on the tower was completed, including a groundskeeper buried in the structure’s shadow.
“It’s a job we had talked about for years, we talked about it, and we finally got it done,” he said.
Reach reporter Luke Torrance by email at ltorrance@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 214, or follow him on Twitter @LukeATorrance.
