In 1831 a new entity appeared on the American landscape: the garden cemetery. Meant to be places where the living could enjoy peace, tranquility and beauty, as well as to provide a final resting place for the dead, the garden cemeteries would forever change the culture of death and burial in the United States. The ideal cemetery would become one in which ornamental trees, bushes, flowers, and waterways graced the ever more artistic (for those who could afford them) monuments to the dead. Previous to the 1830s, the deceased were buried in church lots, in small and soon overcrowded public lots, and even, occasionally in backyards and fields. Graves were often untended, weeds and decay soon took over, and the frequently used wooden grave markers rotted away. Some turned to a movement emerging in Europe, in which horticulture was starting to become a factor in cemetery planning, at a time in which cemetery planning itself was a novel idea. New England was the first region in America to take up the new ideals.
The first such cemetery, Mt. Auburn, opened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1831, and Mount Hope Cemetery, in Bangor, Maine, followed in 1834. Today, these cemeteries are both beautiful places to visit and important historical sites. The author takes readers on a historical tour of eighteen of the Northeast's garden cemeteries, exploring the landscape architecture, the stunning beauty, and delving into the rich history of both the sites and of those who are buried there.
Preface
Introduction
1. The Forerunner—The New Haven Burial Grounds or Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut
2. America’s First Recognized Garden Cemetery—Mount Auburn Cemetery, Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. America’s Second Garden Cemetery—Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Maine
4. Valley Cemetery and Her Daughter Cemetery, Pine Grove, Manchester, New Hampshire
5. Between the Walls—Springfield Cemetery, Springfield, Massachusetts
6. The Northeast’s Largest Garden Cemetery—Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York
7. The Garden of Ethereal Wings—Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island
8. The Forgotten Gem of the Garden Cemeteries—Brookside Cemetery, Watertown, New York
9. The Mystical Garden—Elm Grove Cemetery, Mystic, Connecticut
10. Cemetery on a Hill—Green Mount Cemetery, Montpelier, Vermont, and Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, Vermont
11. By the Valley of the Kings—Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, Maine
12. A Plan for Everything—Cedar Hill Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut
13. The End of the Era—The Influence of Garden Cemeteries; South Street Cemetery, New Hampshire, Forest Grove Cemetery, New Hampshire, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Maine, and Hope Cemetery, Barre, Vermont
