Who Designed Mount Auburn Cemetery?
By Shary Page Berg, Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects
For nearly 100 years the president and trustees were largely responsible for the design and layout of the Cemetery, with new ideas introduced in response to cemetery needs and changing social values. Toward the latter half of the 20th century, Mount Auburn staff and trustees began working more with planning and design professionals who brought new ideas to the management of an increasingly complex landscape. In other words, Mount Auburn is a layered landscape laid out in phases as the need for additional burial space arose and which reflects changing views about death and burial. Four major periods characterize its evolution. Evidence of each of these periods can still be found throughout the Cemetery.
Rural Cemetery: The Initial Vision( 1830 – 1852)
“ As the tract … is so abundantly covered with forest trees, many of which are more than sixty years old, it only requires the avenues be formed, the borders, for some ten feet in width, planted with shrubs, bulbous and perennial flowers. The underwood cleared out, the fences, gateways and appropriate edifices to be erected, to put the grounds in a sufficiently complete state for the uses designed, and to render them at once beautiful and interesting.”
– Massachusetts Horticultural Society Transactions, 1831
Initially the Cemetery was much smaller than it is today, consisting of the hilly wooded area just south of Mount Auburn Street. General Henry A. S. Dearborn, president of the Horticultural Society, was responsible for laying out the initial roads of the cemetery. Most early burials were in family lots, typically enclosed by iron fences, which were scattered in the woods. Lot owners were responsible for the design and upkeep of their lots, and often tended them personally. Monuments varied greatly during this period, from simple headstones to ornate sculptures.
Garden Cemetery: Taming and Ornamentation( 1853 – 1873)
The perfection of Mount Auburn as far as its natural features are concerned, would be attained by diminishing the trees to less than one half their present number, leaving broad vistas and open spaces, through which the works of art could be seen.
– Dr. Jacob Bigelow, 1860
William Ellery Channing monument, Lot # 678, Greenbriar Path. Engraving by James Smillie.
The idea for Mount Auburn Cemetery arose in the early 1830s, when members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, led by Dr. Jacob Bigelow, envisioned an experimental garden with improvements funded by the sale of burial lots. The permanence of the Cemetery and its importance as a resting place for famous men were two prominent themes in the early thinking of the horticulturists. The founders also stressed the potential of the landscape to soothe the bereaved and to inspire future generations. This was a radical departure from typical practice of the time, where the dead were crowded into urban burial grounds that were considered a health hazard.
6 | Sweet Auburn
Mount Auburn grew rapidly during its early years, increasing its acreage through the purchase of adjoining real estate. By mid-19th century, its appearance too was dramatically different. The early lots were mostly sold and many trees had been removed to create additional burial space. The emphasis was on monuments and the social and genealogical history of Stereoview of Asa Gray Garden, circa 1870. the residents rather than the natural landscape. The trustees wanted the cemetery to have a“ more finished and ornamental appearance”( Bigelow 90 – 91). The new aesthetic called for far fewer trees, smoother terrain, greater use of flowering plants, and more evidence of human