mt auburn

as some of you know, i love old cemeteries and there are plenty to explore in this area as you can imagine. one that i recently got around to seeing is the mt auburn cemetery, which is not very far away in west cambridge. i'd heard of this place but for whatever reason had never been over there but i will be going back. it's an incredible place with an awesome view of the city. just to give you some background history (you had to know this was coming) mt auburn is the oldest cemetery of the style we think of as a cemetery. what i mean is, it's the first american memorial gardens type cemetery instead of just a burial ground...basically, the first cemetery in this country designed to be regularly visited by families to admire the gravestones and remember the dead. this concept didn't really exist until the 19th century and so it's a relatively new concept. so, while it's not an extremely old cemetery, there are some older than the 19th century as part of the grounds were previously in use, it's a beautiful place. many of the gravemarkers were designed by leading sculptors of the day and created as art so they are beautiful and unique in their own right.

it was built in a wooded area with natural ponds and wildlife designed to keep these aspects in place so as you walk around, there are trees, ponds, birds, and may other creatures. the day i visited was a gorgeous, sunny day and as i walked around i saw robins, sparrows, other birds, turtles, squirrels, a ground hog, ducks, a chipmunk, a heron, and a rabbit. i didn't get pics of them all, they move pretty fast, but i took a few pics of the grounds and of the skyline as seen from the tower hill in the middle of the cemetery. just a side note here, wallace, you would love taking pictures here...so many wildlife and sculptures. i will be going back because although i was there a couple of hours last weekend, i don't think i covered half of the place. here are a few of the pics i got.

until the next post...