Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Mosaic of American Culture | Page 17

People and Happenings
Cambridge Savings First to Match Gift
for Story Chapel Entrance
Cambridge Savings
Bank has been the
first institution to
help match the gift
of $132,000 awarded
to Mount Auburn
last year by MassDe-
velopment through
their Massachusetts
Cultural Facilities
Cambridge Savings Bank President Bob
Fund (MCFF),
Wilson (center) and Bank officers Susan
donating $30,000
LaPierre, Senior VP for Community Rela-
for a proposed new tions (far left), and Barbara Crystal, VP
Corporate Loans (far right), present a check
entry into Story
to Mount Auburn President Dave Barnett
Chapel. The new
(center, left) and Senior VP of Development
entry is designed
Piper Morris
for increased energy
efficiency and visitor accessibility and reflects the original
(19th century) porte-cochere at the Story Chapel entrance.
“Cambridge Savings is pleased to make this donation
to support Mount Auburn Cemetery,” says Robert M.
Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Mount
Auburn Cemetery is an important historical landmark
and an integral part of the Cambridge community. The
new chapel entrance will make the building more inviting
and accessible to visitors, and provide a focal point for the
entrance. We are proud to support Mount Auburn’s mission
to educate visitors, preserve historic monuments, and offer
a first-class horticultural experience. ”
Lead Pointing Initiative
The Ruth and Henry Walter Fund
has donated $4,000 for a new initia-
tive involving the on-going care
and conservation of stone monuments
throughout the Cemetery. The
Preservation staff at Mount Auburn has discovered that
the most durable joints are those filled by lead pointing, a
traditional practice that has been used on some of our older
monuments. Pointing stone joints with lead is a truly sustain-
able practice and the maintenance of lead joints over many
years requires only occasional and localized resetting of the
material into the joint by hammer and tool. Thanks to the
generosity of the Ruth and Henry Walter Fund, we can now
take steps towards revitalizing the lost technique of pouring
and setting lead joinery for use on our site, and share our
findings with other cemeteries, parks, and historic sites. In
response to why he was interested in funding these efforts,
Matthew Walter replied, “I’m very interested in historic
preservation and I know Mount Auburn Cemetery has a
substantial agenda. I was interested in helping Mount Auburn
stay on the cutting edge.”
Ruggiero Grant Awarded for
Consecration Dell Habitat
Restoration
The Anthony J. & Mildred D.
Ruggiero Memorial Trust
has granted Mount Auburn
$117,180 for the funding of
the Consecration Dell Habitat
Restoration, which continues
a multi-year initiative that the
Fund supported in its earlier
stages. This ambitious effort will
introduce native New England
woodland plant species into a
previously degraded forest and
will prepare a site for the rein-
troduction of four amphibian
species into a wetland area. The restoration makes a major
improvement in Mount Auburn’s wildlife biodiversity and
the quality of habitat serving a variety of different animal
species.
Consecration Dell (photo above), which represents both
the geographic and historic core of the Cemetery, is already
home to one of the few populations of the rare spotted
salamander remaining in eastern Massachusetts, which
is greatly dependent on the vegetation and vernal pool
habitats for its unique life-cycle needs. Part of the habitat
res toration efforts include the introduction of four new
species of amphibians: Bufo americanus (American Toad),
Rana sylvatica (Wood Frog), Hyla versicolor (Gray Treefrog),
and Pseudacris crucifer (Spring Peeper), all of which are not
known to have been at this site recently, but are likely to
have been here in the past.
Concord Academy Alumni
Visit Mount Auburn
Mount Auburn Cemetery’s
Curator of Historical Col-
lections and Concord Academy
alumna Meg L. Winslow gave a
special tour of the grounds with
Cemetery Archivist Brian A.
Sullivan for Concord Academy
alumni on October 4. After the
tour, a catered wine and cheese
reception was held in historic
Bigelow Chapel. School friends
were reunited and many New
England family connections
were made with Mount
Auburn Cemetery.
Concord Academy alumnae
discover family ties at Mount
Auburn
Spring 2010 | 15