Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Community Resource | Page 4

Montessori Kindergarteners study pond-life at Auburn Lake.
This past spring we had just walked into Mount Auburn
through the east gate when a great blue heron flew over our
heads. The orioles have always excited the kids, not only
seeing the birds but also their nests. Last year two classes
loved seeing the male rose-breasted grosbeak coming to
the bird feeder—it was phenomenal to see his colors in
full sunlight.
The view from Washington Tower is great for map study
when combined with readings from Birds of the Cambridge
Region, written by William Brewster. Brewster was a 19th-
century authority on birds who wrote extensively about
the walks he took from his house on Brattle Street into the
marshes along the Charles River. When you’re on top of
Washington Tower, you can get a good idea of what he was
talking about, concerning the natural and human history
of this area. (When we’re at Mount Auburn, we also visit
Brewster’s grave.)
Most years I conduct a topography class at the Cemetery.
We come to Mount Auburn with a topographic map and
cross-sectional profiles. We walk Indian Ridge Path to the
main gate and then turn south, walking straight into Con-
secration Dell. As we’re walking I ask my students to keep
aware of exactly where they are on the path. We have
check points where I ask them to tell me the exact height
of a particular place and how the topography they observe
compares with their cross sections.
I’ve also used the Cemetery for tree study. When you’ve
“lived” with a tree on the school campus, it’s a totally
different experience to hunt for a similar tree at Mount
Auburn. We find the name plaque on the tree—and it’s
so much better than identifying it by using a field guide.
You’ve really connected completely with the tree.
Other teachers use Mount
Auburn for other purposes. The
youngest children study the pond
life, as do second-graders when
they learn about the Charles
River. Seventh and eighth graders
do sketching or water colors of
plants or monuments. Grades
five through eight might come
for other reasons, but are ex-
posed to views of death and the
afterlife and begin interesting
discussions as a result of their
visits. (Of course, they are all
immortal!) Sometimes we
combine classes and students
bring books and have an hour of
quiet reading at Mount Auburn.
One student asked me, “Why
can’t the rest of the city be like
Mount Auburn?” He was just
overwhelmed with the peace and quiet–and the care taken
to make the landscape visually interesting. I myself look on
the setting as ideal and have worked to make Shady Hill’s
landscaping more like Mount Auburn’s.
Scheri Fultineer,
Design Critic in Landscape Architecture
Harvard Graduate School of Design
I
teach a course called “The Dead” at the Design School.
I’ve been interested in the way religious and spiritual
practices have impacted our understanding of the landscape
and its design, and how, in our increasingly pluralistic world,
different communities have to literally share common
ground in cemeteries. I usually bring that into the design
Harvard Graduate School of Design’s class “The Dead” take a tour of Mount
Auburn on March 6, 2009.
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