1885 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 2 077

58

The Modern Trend in an Old Cemetery

[image of trees next to a lake]
Mount Auburn Development Resembles Park Rather Than Graveyard

OLD New England cemeteries, still
ready to receive the dead after
years that have seen them steadily
filling with rows of tombstones and monu-
ments, are facing a revolutionary trans-
formation. For the mode in graveyards
is changing today just as surely, if not so
rapidly, as in countless other ways of
life—and death, and burial grounds are
yielding to the modern trend toward
natural beauty.

It may be sad news to the marble and
granite cutter and to the dealer in monu-
mental wares, but no imposing headstones
or similar sepulchers will be reared against
the landscape to mark the graves in the
model necropolis of the future. Instead,
all markers will be embedded in and level
with the surface of the surrounding
ground, in conformity with the growing
conviction among cemetery authorities
that crowded stones and slabs of mourn-
ful aspect and of many shapes and sizes
are less pleasing and restful to the eye
than is a vista of trees, shrubs, flowers
and water.

Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge,
burial place of many famous men and
women, and one of the oldest and largest
cemeteries in the country, is among the
first in this vicinity to recognize and to
promote the tendency to accentuate
natural beauty rather than artificial
ornamentation for the resting places of
the dead. Although it contains many
mausoleums and memorials of real artis-
tic merit, including the impressive tomb

of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Chris-
tian Science. The proprietors have long
been vigilant to guard the natural beau-
ty of the grounds and some time ago im-
posed restrictions providing that no lot
should have more than one monument,
headstone or other memorial above the
grade of the lot and that designs of all
structures to be erected in the grounds
should be submitted to the superintend
ent for approval. Now, with a view to
making the cemetery even more sightly,
they have set aside a portion of a new
tract on which no memorials may be
placed above the ground.
—
New Tract Developed
In the southwest part of the cemetery,
a new tract of twenty-five acres, border-
ing on Coolidge avenue and Grove street,
is being developed to resemble a park
rather than a graveyard, in accordance
with plans drawn by Laurence S. Cald-
well, Boston landscape architect. The
gently sloping terrain has been carefully
graded and seeded and planted with
mountain laurel, rhododendrons and other
shrubs and flowers to supplement the
stately elms and massive willows that
have stood there for years. On the
shores of Willow Pond, a small but beau-
tiful body of water in the midst of a
clump of willows on the tract, are the
lots on which no monuments may be
raised. The trustees already have ex-
pended $100,000 in the development and

they plan to extend the area as the de-
mand for the new lots warrants.

The project was first suggested two
years ago by Judge Charles Almy presi-
dent of the trustees, in keeping with the
progress being made by cemeteries in
other parts of the country, especially in
the West, but the proposal did not meet
with the favor of a majority of the trus-
tees. Judge Almy was not discouraged,
however, and submitted the same pro-
posal at the next year's meeting of the
trustees, with the result that it was
adopted.

"It will be very interesting to see how
far and how fast this modern trend ex-
tends," says Judge Almy. "There can
be no question as to the greater beauty of
such final resting places. It is a
question of how fast the public can
get over the idea that a graveyard is
a place to be filled up with marble or
granite or slate stones and realize that
trees and grass and flowers are more
suitable as well as more beautiful.

"There is nothing terrible about death.
It is a simple and often a beautiful thing
and should not be treated as something
to be spoken of with hushed voices, and
the resting places of those who are gone
should be cheerful and attractive. Much
has been done to lessen the dreadful
gloom of funerals and mourning apparel,
and the modern cemetery may, and per-
haps should, be cheerful as well as beau-
tiful, and a place to be visited, not in a
spirit of gloom and sorrow, but as one in

which we can take pleasure in remem-
bering those who have gone before.
—
Typical Lot of Old
"Not many years ago the typical lot
had on it a central monument, on which
was the family name of the owner and
such other inscriptions as individual taste
called for. The monument was some-
times simple and dignified, and often
ornate, having symbolic figures or caps,
such as an angel contemplating flight,
as interpreted by a mortuary artisan.
Some of these were pretty bad. There
was also a headstone and footstone on
each grave, and on the headstone an in-
scription giving the name and dates, with
some recital of the virtues of the de-
ceased, either in prose or verse, or also
very commonly, a single word, such as
'Mother,' 'Father' or 'Baby,' which was
sufficient for the family but not informa-
tory to others. As the lot filled up, it,
with others near it similarly treated,
looked like the yard of a granite or
marble cutter.

"Marble, perishable stone, was the
material most commonly used, with more
or less ornamental carving, according to
the taste of the owner, or possibly that
of the one who sold the stone or did the
work. Some of the stones were simple
and some inclined to be ostentatious. On
other lots were large and conspicuous
tombs. In earlier days the inscriptions
were a fertile field for genealogists and
antiquarians, but now such information
is better had from municipal records.

"Formerly, the attitude of cemeteries
was that when a lot was sold, the buyer
could put on it such memorials as he
pleased, irrespective of the effect on the
appearance of the cemetery as a whole,
but for some time a right of censorship
usually has been reserved, which has
been exercised very gently. It is rather
difficult to restrain a not unnatural de-
sire of mourners to display their grief.

"With the gradual passing of crepe and
opther accompaniments of 'full mourning'
and 'simplification of funerals, a change
has come over cemeteries, and many of
them are trying to become more beauti-
ful and natural. Many of them are re-
stricting the number of memorials which
can be placed on a lot above the grade of
the lot. A good many new cemeteries in
the West and a considerable number in
the East allow nothing above grade, and
it is worth noting that two at least of our
leading and old cemeteries. Mount Au-
burn and Forest Hills, have set apart
tracts of very attractive lots on which
nothing can be placed above grade, which
indicates the belief of the trustees that
here is a demand for such areas from
people of educated taste.

"This interesting change in the treat-
ment and development of cemeteries is
rapidly increasing. The old system of
burying under churches, or in crowded
burial places in cities, and in church
yards or town cemeteries in rural dis-
tricts, gave way long ago to garden ceme-
teries, sometimes private and sometimes
publicly owned, in which a serious effort
was made to have them beautiful as well
as restful. The first cemetery of this
kind was started just 100 years ago and
has been followed by many others in all
parts of the country.
—
Early Customs
"The custom of early days permitted
and almost required that a monument or
headstone should be placed at each
grave, on which should be placed an in-
scription setting out the virtues of the
deceased and very often some lines of
verse or scriptural quotation, giving point
to the story of the child who asked where
the bad people were buried, because he
had read the headstones, and only good
people were in the cemetery. It was
thought that the owner of a lot had a
right to put up whatever memorial he
saw fit on his lot, with the result that
cemeteries filled up with monuments,
headstones and tombs standing high in
the air, some of which were simple and
beautiful and many were very ornate
and ostentatious.

"The typical lot had a granite curb, an
iron fence around it, a central monument
bearing the family name and at each
grave a headstone with the name and vir-
tues of its occupant, or often merely
'Father,' 'Mother,' or 'Baby,' and also an-
other stone at the foot of the grave.
Many lots were almost entirely covered
with such stones and looked like the yard
of a granite cutter.

"A good many years ago the best of
the cemeteries refused to allow more
granite curbs or iron fences and are try-
ing now to get rid of those that exist.
Most of them exercise a more or less
strict censorship over memorials placed

on lots, and this censorship combined
with a general improvement of public
taste has had a good effect, but the de-
sire of a few for ostentation in the mark-
ing of the graves of their dead cannot
be entirely controlled.

"In older days graveyards were
searched by genealogists and antiquarians
for information which can now be had
more easily by going to the official
records, which are constantly growing
more dull and accurate. The historical
value of dates and inscriptions on monu-
ments and headstones has nearly disap-
peared.

"There is no question as to the beauty
gained by the abolition or limitation of
headstones above the ground, and the
action of Mount Auburn and Forest Hills
in doing away with them entirely in some
of the most attractive parts of those
cemeteries indicates strong belief on the
part of their trustees that such a restric-
tion will appeal to people of taste. It is
a strictly modern and very interesting
tendency and one which is likely to add
greatly to the attractiveness of our
cemeteries."