For 20 years, Forest Lawn has been offering guided tours of its cemetery. This year, in order to keep the touring momentum up to snuff, M&T Bank has bestowed a $37,500 grant upon the cemetery, which will help to launch a virtual mobile app. The app will allow people to take these fascinating tours from anywhere.
“M&T’s sponsorship of our innovative Forest Lawn tour app provides a remarkable innovation in sharing this historic gem with even more than our 110,000 annual visitors,” said Forest Lawn President Joseph P. Dispenza. “This will allow people from around the world, whether they have ties to Buffalo and Forest Lawn or not, to ‘visit’ the cemetery.”
From virtual tours to Forest Lawn trolley tours, everyone can now be able to get up close and personal with the cemetery’s outstanding features that include history, art, sculpture, architecture and nature.
“As a company now celebrating 160 consecutive years of being headquartered in downtown Buffalo, we appreciate the city’s rich history and are proud to support this treasured part of Buffalo’s past and present,” said Shelley Drake, president of The M&T Charitable Foundation. “Taking the art, sculpture and history of Forest Lawn to anyone with a smartphone anywhere in the world is a stunning concept we are pleased to sponsor.”
Some of the most popular tours include Forest Lawn’s Original History; Historic Civil War; Artwork of Forest Lawn; Inside the Gatehouse Tour; Sundown Walking Tour.
The full schedule of tours is available at www.forestlawn.com/events
“We added a little twist this year that we think visitors will enjoy. Since it’s a presidential year, we’re focusing on the women behind the well-known politicians from Buffalo,” said Dispenza.
The 2016 tour season started this past Sunday with a Historic Civil War tour. The tour season continues until Oct. 22, 2016.
Tickets – priced at $15 per person for walking tours and $25 per person for trolley tours – are available on the Forest Lawn website www.forest-lawn.com or by phone at 716-885-1600. Collaborative and some specialty tours are priced higher. Tickets to the Monday Music in the Meadow concert series are $10. Members of the Forest Lawn Heritage Foundation receive a specified number of free tour tickets (based on their membership level) and a 20 percent discount on all other tickets purchased. Private group tours can be scheduled by contacting Sandy Starks, Forest Lawn’s Director of Interpretive Programming at 716-885-1606 ext. 302 or via email at sstarks@forestlawn.com.