Famous Permanent Residents of New Jersey - Allen Ginsberg

There is an unexpected quiet and peaceful little zone right at the south end of Newark and just across the border in Elizabeth. Hidden in the midst of the chaos of Newark Airport and the New Jersey Turnpike and U.S. Route 1 and Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor.

Entrance to Mr.Ginsberg's cemetery (Gomel Chesed) with a direct view of the Newark Airport control tower.

Somehow it seems to be the right sort of place for beatnik icon Allen Ginsberg to spend his eternity.  I recall reading somewhere that he once said that he would be buried within sight of the ginormous Budweiser brewery near Newark Airport.  A few days ago I wandered about the area with some friends to find out if that was true.

View of the Budweiser brewery from the Ginsberg family plot.

An even better view of a giant electrical substation.

In fact Ron had already scouted it so going straight for Allen Ginsberg's grave site was easy.  Indeed from the great beyond, if you believe in these sorts of things, he can see the mega-brewery. He gets even better views of a giant electrical substation along the northeast corridor tracks.

"Pioneer Lodge" seems an odd name for a Jewish cemetery, but the Star of David over the gate gives it away.  Small, like Gomel Chesed.

The giant Budweiser brewery, opened in 1951, is a very familiar site to users of Newark Airport.  This view is from just down the street from Gomel Chesed cemetery.  A different small Jewish cemetery, Bethel Memorial Park, is in the foreground.

He is buried in one of several small Jewish cemeteries either adjacent to each other or separated by relatively quiet streets.   Newark did have a large Jewish population at one time but why so many ended up in small cemeteries here I don't know.  It must not have made the master planners happy when plotting out the airport and the turnpike - my guess is that they would have much preferred to cover these little green splodges with roads or parking lots or "facilities" of some sort.  But they didn't - they probably couldn't without legal maneuvering and causing a ruckus among descendants.  There are also a couple of slightly larger cemeteries - Mount Olivet and Rosemount.  We walked through Rosemount which seemed to be secular.  I did not learn much about it poking around on the internet but did find that it had been recently involved in this grisly story (click here).

Rosemount is across the street from Gomel Chesed.  Somewhat larger and more elaborately landscaped.   It, along with comparably sized Mount Olivet cemetery and the little Jewish ones, provide a surprising smudge of green given the strictly utilitarian nature of most of the surroundings.

I definitely want to include Allen Ginsberg's final resting place on a hike, as much for the ambiance of the place as anything.  The area is small and it needs to be combined with other things.  By public transit it is easily accessed from the North Elizabeth train station (not to mention numerous buses, or just walking in from Newark or Elizabeth).  Although surrounded on three sides by pedestrian unfriendly megalopolis clutter, the approach from the south is from sidewalk-rich north Elizabeth with its pleasant rows of well-kept small wood frame houses.

The old Singer sewing machine factory in north Elizabeth is one of many dots easily connected on a hike with the south Newark cemeteries.  Said to be the largest factory in the world when built around 1875.  Who knows if that is true, but it is really, really big.  As best experienced by walking its length. 

An obvious combination is with another old and large cemetery nearby - Evergreen - in Hillside which includes author Stephen Crane among its permanent residents.  To the north one can take in Weequahic Park - once a crown jewel in Essex County's park system and still quite pretty.  To the south is the gargantuan Singer sewing machine factory and the Elizabeth waterfront park with its spectacular views across the Arthur Kill, and historic Elizabeth itself.  All dots worthy of connecting.