Opposite page: In 1843, at the age of 79, Boston merchant and philanthropist Thomas Handasyd Perkins commissioned America’ s first professional sculptor, Horatio Greenough to carve his Newfoundland dog. Placed at Mount Auburn Cemetery in 1844, the monument is viewed by many as a symbol of loyalty and companionship, and a guide through the afterlife.
Above, right: Horticultural Curator Dennis Collins envisions a planting plan near the grave of Dr. Jacob Bigelow, one of Mount Auburn’ s founders and a long-serving president. When finished( right) the corridor will include: Sweetbay Magnolia( Magnolia virginiana), mentioned in Bigelow’ s book Florula Bostoniensis( 1814), alongside a historically appropriate un-mowed turf, using Pennsylvania Sedge( Carex pensylvanica).
See more online at www. mountauburn. org
Mount Auburn’ s stewardship of its historic landscape relies on a careful mix of guidelines, policies, and strategic initiatives. It also utilizes archival reports and correspondence held by our Historical Collections Department whenever possible. Some underlying goals that are part of all landscaping projects include increasing the diversity of our horticultural collections, making the landscape more ecologically sustainable, and protecting the historic integrity of the landscape, including monuments.
A recent project to renovate the“ Beech / Central Avenues Corridor” illustrates the kind of steps we take in the design process. The project site, situated in the historic core of the Cemetery on a rise overlooking the front gates, is in a prominent location with a high volume of visitors. It is bracketed by landscapes of contrasting characters. To the east, along Narcissus Path, lies a steep ridge whose slopes in 2012 were planted as a naturalistic wildlife habitat corridor. To the west at Bigelow Chapel and along Cypress Avenue,
by contrast, we find highly ornamental Victorian period plantings. One objective for the landscape renovation was to create a transition zone between these two contrasting areas. The biggest challenge was the dense, dry shade in this area, resulting in a sparse and weedy turf and a lack of understory shrubs or groundcovers.
I developed an overall design utilizing a diverse mix of shrubs and groundcovers suitable for the dry shade conditions, and we were fortunate to obtain funding from Nathaniel Goddard, Claude Lee, The Samuel Perkins and Nancy Reed Fund at the Boston Foundation, Louis W. & Mable H. Cabot, William A. & Elizabeth L. Thorndike, and the Cabot Family Charitable Trust— enough to completely cover the cost of the plants. Mount Auburn’ s staff removed some declining hemlocks and other trees, and planted a dozen new trees in the fall of 2015. The final planting of 157 shrubs and 7,700 herbaceous perennials and groundcovers was completed in June 2016.
2016 Volume 2 | 9