Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Reimagining the Cemetery as Museum | Page 23

The Front Entry Precinct
and Caroline’s Path –
A Recent Gift in Honor
of Caroline Loughlin
By Jane M. Carroll, Vice President of Institutional Advancement

In April 2014, the Friends of Mount Auburn
received its largest single gift ever. This generous donation
from the Caroline Loughlin Fund of Vanguard Charitable
is given in memory of a beloved Mount Auburn Cemetery
Trustee, dedicated volunteer, supporter, and friend for more
than thirteen years. It is being used to support the planned
restoration of Asa Gray Garden, named for the esteemed
nineteenth-century botanist, and to create a walkway named
Caroline’s Path.
Caroline Loughlin was naturally drawn to Mount Auburn
and to the preservation of the Cemetery’s archival records,
which illuminate its rich history and designed landscape.
In addition to her work at Mount Auburn, Caroline was
nationally recognized as an active steward of the legacy
of landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Creating a
path at Mount Auburn in her name allows us to honor her
abiding interest in and commitment to history, preservation,
and landscape design.
Caroline’s Path will provide an improved pedestrian
experience near the Cemetery’s main entrance. The Path
links Story Chapel to the Asa Gray Garden. A seating area
opposite the Chapel marks the beginning of the Path,
which continues along a gently sloping stone wall to a
circular bench with the name Caroline’s Path engraved in
a wall panel. The project adheres to the 1993 Master Plan
Principles of preserving the design intent of our historic
landscape and strengthening its most successful existing
features and values.
This gift stimulated Mount Auburn to move forward with
other long-planned enhancements of the front entrance
precinct and Asa Gray Garden. The multi-phase project
will create a more welcoming entry for visitors and clients,
improve vehicular and pedestrian access, make travel safer,
preserve historically significant structures, and highlight
the strength and breadth of Mount Auburn’s horticultural
collection.
The second phase of the project will be the restoration
of Asa Gray Garden, which will make it a showpiece of
horticultural excellence appropriate to its location in the
Cemetery. Mount Auburn staff members are working with
Halvorson Design Partnership to incorporate a beauti