History

Early 1900's – William H. Locke Jr. had the vision to create a beautiful memorial park on Long Island for those in the city, who were offered the ease of the Long Island Railroad to bring their loved ones for funeral arrangements. In its first years of service, Pinelawn Memorial Park provided overnight accommodations for families who were burying their loved ones within the vast, peaceful, green land.

Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum's Garden of Normandie is home to the Statue of Peace, one of the largest bronze statues ever cast in modern times. The refurbished, softly glowing, ton-and-a-half bronze establishes the serene mood of the garden. The Statue of Peace had reigned in the magnificent grande salle a' manger on the French ocean liner Normandie, an Art Deco floating palace that transferred its first class passengers from France to New York City. The Statue of Peace stood at the center of a huge 282 feet long by 32 feet high dining salon (almost the size of Galerie des Glaces at Versailles), where she held out a symbolic olive branch to the 700 diners who typically filled the room for dinner.

Seven years after Normandie's maiden 1935 transatlantic voyage, she burned and capsized at a New York pier while being converted for wartime service during World War II. Fortunately, many of Normandie's works of art were saved. Subsequently, the Statue of Peace disappeared until discovered by Pinelawn Memorial Park, disassembled and virtually forgotten in a Brooklyn churchyard.

Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum ceased the use of upright headstones within their cemetery grounds in 1955. Instead, tasteful bronze memorials are set level with the wide sweeping lawns of the park, which aids in the goal to make Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum one of the most beautiful cemeteries in America.

The John Donne Memorial was the first monument created for Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum by designer, Ismar David. In 1965, Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum owner, Alfred H. Locke approached Ismar David about creating a centerpiece for an area on the massive grounds of the cemetery. Alfred H. Locke requested that the piece utilize an excerpt from John Donne's famous poem "No man is an island". Ismar David designed the 50 ' x 13 ' structure using the requested excerpt, creating a stunning mausoleum facade that highlights the important lessons of John Donne's writing.

Ismar David went on to design the bulk of the layout of Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum's park area. By carefully designing and planning all aspects of the park, Ismar David helped to create the beauty that Pinelawn is known for today.

The Garden of Peace is an 11 acre garden within Pinelawn Memorial Park And Arboretum. The centerpiece of this beautiful tranquil space is the Fountain of Peace, one of the largest flowing bronze fountains in the country and designed by Ismar David. The fountain resides among eight stately 40-foot tall Georgia Marble columns, which were discovered in Atlanta by Pinelawn where they adorned the Federal Reserve Bank for decades. They were relocated here in 1970 to add dramatic highlights to the Fountain of Peace.

An impressive multi-columned colonnade of white marble frames, from a distance, a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson of heroic proportions, surrounded by a large flower bed. At the base of the Jefferson colonnade, an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence is inscribed along with its signers in gold leaf.

The garden reflects a new birth of freedom on this Earth, expressed in the ideals and ideas of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and one of the chief authors of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In addition, there are four white marble gazebos honoring Jefferson and three of our other founding fathers.