Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Commemoration at Mount Auburn | Page 4

2 | Sweet Auburn
when slavery still existed in the antebellum South and Jewish
people when they were excluded from some cemeteries and
certain organizations. “Mount Auburn began as a non-
denominational cemetery and continues to be so, even
more today,” says Tom Johnson of Cemetery Services. “We
are very accommodating to families and funeral homes—
honoring their needs, beliefs, and traditions. For example,
some religions request that a person be buried facing east,
so we align the casket at the foot of the grave to comply
with that custom.”
Jim Holman reports that he is helping more and more
Indian families hold cremations and cremation ceremonies
at the Cemetery. Crematory Manager Walter Morrison,
Jr., assists Hindu
families lay-
ing offerings of
flower petals,
fruit, rice and
coconuts on the
Bigelow Chapel
altar before cre-
mation ceremo-
nies. At this time,
the decedent’s
casket faces east
while resting
at the altar; as
tradition dictates,
men lead the
procession from
the chapel to the
crematory.
Christian
commemoration
customs have
changed over the
decades. Fifty years ago, wakes and visiting hours extended
over two days, while now they are often held the hour
before a funeral in the morning. More and more people
are planning funeral and memorial services incorporating
personal eulogies written by family members and friends,
accompanied by filmed tributes and favorite music. The me-
morial service at Mount Auburn of a prominent educator/
environmentalist featured a New Orleans-style jazz band,
followed by a catered lunch on Bigelow Chapel Lawn.
“The Cemetery Services staff at Mount Auburn can advise
people in choosing and designing monuments that pay
unique and personal tribute,” says Vice President of Cem-
etery Services Sean O’Regan, “and in planning services
or receptions in Story or Bigelow Chapel, and, from May
through October, on Bigelow Chapel Lawn.”
Birch Gardens, a 21st-Century
Commemorative Space
Mount Auburn’s newest landscape, Birch Gardens, is an
innovative, designed memorial garden that opened this
past September. Located on the east side of the Cemetery,
it encompasses nine granite panels—each 16 inches deep
and seven feet tall—with designated space for personal
inscriptions. The panels are connected by cast iron fencing
inspired by the historic Victorian fence on Mount Auburn
Street. Immediately in front of the panels are three burial
options: space for casket burials, urn burials, and cremation
burials without urns. In addition, a number of individual
markers and upright monuments in garden beds are also
available. The lush plantings throughout Birch Gardens
include hundreds of shrubs and groundcover plants and
51 new trees, such as shadblow (Amelanchier grandiflora),
paperbark maple (Acer griseum), and London plane tree
(Platanus x acerifolia). In keeping with the strong trend
toward cremation, 80% of Birch Gardens’ 400 units are
specifically for cremated remains.
Sean O’Regan suggests that people interested in Birch
Gardens “look around at the whole setting, because that’s
what you’re purchasing—a place within this revered
landscape.” He emphasizes three things about Birch
Gardens: one, as beautiful as it is today, it will become
even lovelier
as its plant-
ings mature;
two, in the
future, it will
be regarded
as an historic
space and a
monument
reflecting the
best design
traditions of
our time; and,
three, it is “a
value option”
because peo-
ple purchasing
an inscription
on a panel
rather than an
entire memo-
rial will save
the thousands
of dollars needed to create and set a memorial of compa-
rable quality. Sean reports that 11 spaces at Birch Gardens
were sold during the first month they became available.
Birch Gardens is the result of more than a decade of
planning and deliberation, of brainstorming, focus groups,
and artistic give-and-take. An early rendering of the
keep a decedent’s cremated remains,
but most inter them just as they would
a body, placing them in the ground or
in a niche in a structure built to hold
cremated remains, a columbarium, like
the one here in Story Chapel. Other
families divide cremated remains so that
portions can be interred or scattered in
two or more locations.
Families may choose to scatter a de-
cedent’s cremated remains at a favorite
park, beach, or forest, but often come
to regret this irrevocable act when they
realize they have no private, protected
space specifically designated to com-
memorate their loved one. A colleague
recounts the story of a friend whose
cremated remains were scattered, at
his request, over a slope at the side of
his house. Since then, the house has
changed hands several times, so the
man’s family no longer has access to
A bench in the C