Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Expanding our Educational Outreach | Page 12

Birch Gardens is Taking Shape
By Candace Currie, Director of Planning & Cemetery Development
Birch Gardens—Mount Auburn’s innovative
yet classic new interment landscape—is steadily taking
shape. The beautifully carved details on the nine granite
inscription panels have been completed (see photograph
below), and soon the panels will be connected together by
ornamental iron fencing featuring finials resembling those
on the original fencing at the Cemetery’s Mount Auburn
Street entrance. The foundation and some elements of the
reflecting pool and gentle waterfall are now installed. You
can already see how Birch Gardens is at once an elegant
and monumental addition to our historic landscape. And,
this fall, the autumn color of the trees left in place in Birch
Gardens has been spectacular. When we add thousands of
plants in the spring of 2008, the area will become another
magnificent garden space.
As described in the Spring 2007 Sweet Auburn, Birch
Gardens will provide
space directly in front of
the inscription panels for
both casket and cremation
burials. As the inventory
of new burial space at
Mount Auburn dwindles,
we wanted to create a new
landscape at the edge of
the Cemetery using avail-
able land along Coolidge
Avenue and provide
privacy by replacing the
existing 1980s fence with
something more beautiful,
dignified and permanent.
We wanted to create a
shared memorial that also
gives families the op-
portunity to have indi-
vidualized inscriptions to
commemorate their loved
ones, all in keeping with
the high standards consis-
tently achieved at Mount
Auburn.
Each of Birch Gardens’ granite panels will form a garden
room, taking its character from the existing trees that have
been carefully preserved and from the many trees and shrubs
that will be added in the future. The siting of the panels took
into account not only the existing trees but also the views
of the Cambridge City Cemetery on the other side of
Coolidge Avenue. To further enhance the aesthetics of the
site, the utility lines along the street will be put underground.
10 | Sweet Auburn
Birch Gardens from a rendering by Halvorson Design Partnership,
Boston.
The concept for Birch Gardens came from Mount
Auburn’s award-winning 1993 Master Plan. Granite used
in the memorial was chosen for its durability, warm earth
tones and ability to be successfully inscribed. The stone also
has a low water absorp-
tion rate that will reduce
leaching of any mortar.
Called “Canadian Ma-
hogany” or “Red Deer
Brown,” the granite
comes from the geo-
logic area known as the
Canadian shield that is
estimated to be approxi-
mately 3.8 billion years
old. The stone is quar-
ried at Nelson Granite,
a family-owned business
in operation since 1909
in Vermilion Bay, north-
western Ontario. Like all
granites, it is composed
mainly of feldspar and
quartz. When the sun
shines on it, the crystals
in the granite glisten,
enlivening the surface of
the panels.
We expect to open the
PHOTO BY candace currie
project for sale during
late spring 2008. We will hold a formal dedication in the
fall, when the new turf, groundcovers, perennials, shrubs
and trees have taken hold. If you would like more informa-
tion about Birch Gardens, please email info@mountau-
burn.org. Birch Gardens promises to be a striking 21st-
century addition to the nation’s first landscaped cemetery,
still allowing us to provide new burial space for families
176 years after our founding.