In Cambridge, Mass. is a vast and beautiful park that happens to be a cemetery. It is called Mount Auburn and has the distinction of being the first of its kind in America: a landscaped rural garden Victorian cemetery.
Mount Auburn opened in 1831. Today it encompasses 170 acres in Cambridge and also parts of neighboring Watertown. More than 100,000 people are buried here. Wow!
More on Mount Auburn's history here.
The impressive entrance near Harvard University was built in 1842 of locally- quarried Quincy granite. The wings at the top are of ancient Egyptian influence symbolizing the sun and therefore power, according to cemetery material.The inscription under the rings says the following:
“Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes 12:7”
Credit for founding this Garden of Eden of burial grounds is Dr. Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879), a Boston physician, botanist and Harvard professor. Bigelow chapel, (right) located near the entrance, was named in his honor. The grand Gothic Revival edifice, built in 1844 and rebuilt in 1855 (also of Quincy granite) emulates the style of cathedrals built in England, France and Germany in the 1200s or 1300s, a cemetery publication says.
