Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was America's first garden cemetery, and it changed everything. Before 1831, urban cemeteries were grim churchyards, overcrowded and unsanitary, feared as sources of disease. Mount Auburn offered something revolutionary: 174 acres of landscaped hills, winding paths, ornamental plantings, and romantic vistas - a place where families could picnic, children could play, and the dead could rest in beauty. It was an immediate sensation. 30,000 people visited in the first four years. Cities across America copied it. The rural cemetery movement led directly to the creation of public parks - Frederick Law Olmsted conceived Central Park after visiting Mount Auburn. The cemetery also became a Who's Who of American achievement: Longfellow, Mary Baker Eddy, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Winslow Homer, and hundreds more. Mount Auburn proved that death could be beautiful, and that Americans would pay handsomely for it.
The Revolution
Urban cemeteries in 1830s America were disasters. Bodies were stacked in shallow graves in tiny churchyards. Yellow fever and cholera outbreaks were blamed (wrongly but reasonably) on cemetery miasma. Boston's burial grounds were full. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society proposed something new: a rural cemetery outside the city, designed as a landscape garden with burial as secondary function. Dr. Jacob Bigelow led the effort, purchasing 72 acres of woodland and hiring engineers to create roads, ponds, and plantings. The name came from a biblical reference - the Mount of Olives. Mount Auburn opened in 1831, the first 'rural cemetery' in America.
The Design
Mount Auburn rejected the grid layouts of traditional cemeteries for naturalistic landscape design. Winding roads followed the terrain. Trees and shrubs framed views. Ponds and hills created variety. Monuments were encouraged but regulated to maintain aesthetic harmony. Family plots became garden rooms. The design drew on English landscape garden traditions, romantic sensibility, and emerging American ideas about nature as morally improving. The result felt like a park - because it functioned as one. Before public parks existed, Mount Auburn served as Boston's green space.
The Influence
Mount Auburn's success sparked imitation across America. Laurel Hill Cemetery opened in Philadelphia in 1836; Green-Wood in Brooklyn in 1838; Spring Grove in Cincinnati in 1845. Every major city wanted a garden cemetery. The rural cemetery movement had profound effects: it changed American attitudes toward death (from fearful to sentimental), it created the first designed public landscapes, and it led directly to public parks. Frederick Law Olmsted visited rural cemeteries before designing Central Park; the connections are obvious. The cemetery as peaceful refuge persists today.
The Residents
Mount Auburn became the preferred resting place for Boston's elite and eventually for accomplished Americans from across the country. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose poem 'A Psalm of Life' was inspired by a Mount Auburn walk, is buried here. So is Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science; Isabella Stewart Gardner, art collector; Winslow Homer, painter; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., physician and poet; Charles Bulfinch, architect; and Buckminster Fuller, inventor. The monuments range from modest stones to elaborate Gothic Revival structures. The cemetery is a sculptural museum and an American pantheon.
Visiting Mount Auburn
Mount Auburn Cemetery is located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, about 4 miles west of Boston. It remains an active cemetery but welcomes visitors for walking, birdwatching, and historical tourism. The landscape is spectacular in all seasons - famous for spring flowers and fall foliage. Maps are available at the entrance; guided tours run seasonally. The Washington Tower offers panoramic views of the Boston skyline. Notable graves are marked on the map. The cemetery is a designated National Historic Landmark and Important Bird Area. Parking is available; public transit via MBTA bus from Harvard Square. Boston Logan Airport (BOS) is the nearest major airport. Plan at least two hours to explore.
From the Air
Located at 42.37°N, 71.15°W straddling Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, about 4 miles west of downtown Boston. From altitude, Mount Auburn appears as a large green space with winding paths in the urban landscape. The cemetery's pond (Auburn Lake) is visible. The Washington Tower rises from the highest point. Harvard University is visible to the east. The Charles River curves to the south. The cemetery's designed landscape contrasts with the surrounding urban grid.