![]() ![]() Beyond Mount Auburn’s prescient focus on conservation, it also reflects the impact of Transcendentalism and the progressive spirit in American life seen in advances in science, art, and religion and in social reform movements. Even today this urban wildlife habitat and nationally recognized hotspot for migratory songbirds continues to connect visitors with nature and serves as a model for sustainable landscape practices. This cemetery, located not far from Harvard University, was also a place that reflected and instilled an imperative to preserve and protect nature in a rapidly industrializing culture-lessons that would influence the creation of Central Park, the cemetery at Gettysburg, and the National Parks system. “When Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded, in 1831, it revolutionized the way Americans mourned the dead by offering a peaceful space for contemplation. The Lively Place by Stephen Kendrick, tells the history of the cemetery: Two books explore the history and wildlife of the cemetery. Mount Auburn Cemetery is open daily 8 am–7 pm at 580 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138, (617) 547-7105, .Īn excerpt from The Garden Tourist’s New England. Sweet Auburn, as it came to be called, continues to function as an active cemetery and a pastoral landscape that is visited each year by more than 200,000 people from around the world. Mount Auburn has become a world-renowned ornamental horticultural landscape, a National Historic Landmark, and a leader in historic landscape preservation and ecologically sustainable landscaping. They include Japanese umbrella pines, yellowwoods, amur cork trees, plane trees, weeping cherries, sweetgum, and weeping pagoda trees. The cemetery is planted with more than 5,000 trees spanning 600 varieties. Today, the cemetery still upholds Bigelow’s natural, oasis-like vision, and has grown to 175 acres. Its success inspired the designs of other cemeteries, and launched the American parks movement. As news of the garden cemetery spread, horticulturalists from around the world sent gifts of seeds.īy the mid-1800s, the site was internationally renowned as a horticultural attraction and pleasure ground, with picturesque landscapes, winding paths, a variety of horticulture, and sculptural art. He also established a separate experimental garden at Mount Auburn, planted with many domestic and exotic varieties of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. Dearborn partnered with civil engineer Alexander Wardworth in laying out winding roads that followed the natural contours of the land, and retaining naturalistic elements such as wooded areas and ponds. It also incorporated architectural elements such as castles, rustic cottages, and Gothic ruins into its design, which was particularly suited to a cemetery with its statuary and mausoleums. The picturesque style celebrated nature and embraced the topography and unique physical characteristics of a site. He incorporated ideas from the English picturesque landscape style and the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris into his plan for Mount Auburn. Dearborn (above right), President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, was largely responsible for the cemetery’s design. Auburn Cemetery, speaking to the quiet isolation that can be found among the silent graves.Henry A.S. In the winter, a host of paw-prints are likely to be found pressed into the snow at the Mt. The cemetery, a site protected by the NPS, also serves an arboretum, a bird sanctuary, and a safe habitat for wildlife. City noise swiftly fades to nothing, though several winding hills will afford visitors panoramic views of Boston.Ī complete walk-through of the property takes around two hours, though curious visitors could very easily add several more hours of exploration to find such famous graves as those of B.F. Easily within walking distance of the cacophony of Harvard Square, Mt. A fair portion of the cemetery grounds actually fall within Watertown, though the distinctive Egyptian-style gates serving as the entrance are located in Cambridge. The graveyard stands as an American interpretation of the romantic ideals to be had in the design of Père Lachaise in Paris or Abney Park in London. Founded in 1831, Mount Auburn Cemetery stands in stark contrast to the surrounding Colonial-era graveyards like Granary and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in Boston.Įnvisioned as a garden cemetery, tombs, graves, and monuments are positioned around winding paths carved through lush and secluded forestry.
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