Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic
rural cemetery
A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...
, greenspace,
arboretum and
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
located in the
Forest Hills section of the
Jamaica Plain
Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...
neighborhood of
Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public municipal cemetery of the town of
Roxbury, but was privatized when Roxbury was annexed to Boston.
Overview
Forest Hills Cemetery is located in the southern part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. It is roughly bounded on the southwest by Walk Hill Street, the southeast, by the American Legion Highway, and the northeast by the
Arborway
Arborway (also known as The Arborway) consists of a four-lane, divided parkway and a two lane residential street in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890s as the south most ...
and
Morton Street
Morton Street is a street in southern Boston, Massachusetts. It extends from the southeastern end of the Arborway in Jamaica Plain to Washington Street in the Lower Mills Village of Dorchester. Most of the road is a connecting parkway, signed ...
, where its entrance is located. To the northwest, it is separated from Hyde Park Avenue by a small residential area. It abuts
Franklin Park, which lies to the northeast, and is a short distance from the
Arnold Arboretum to the northwest, and forms a greenspace that augments the city's
Emerald Necklace of parkland.
The cemetery has a number of notable monuments, including some by famous sculptors. Among these are
Daniel Chester French's ''
Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor'' and
John Wilson's
Firemen's Memorial. Forest Hills Cemetery is an active cemetery where interments take place on most days of the year.
History
On March 28, 1848, Roxbury City Council (the municipal board in charge of the area at that time) gave an order for the purchase of the farms of the Seaverns family to establish a rural municipal park cemetery. Inspired by the
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Forest Hills Cemetery was designed by Henry A. S. Dearborn to provide a park-like setting to bury and remember family and friends. In the year the cemetery was established, another were purchased from John Parkinson. This made for a little more than at a cost of $27,894. The area was later increased to . In 1893, the first
crematorium
A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...
in Massachusetts was added to the cemetery, along with other features like a scattering garden, an indoor
columbarium
A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased.
The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...
and an outdoor columbarium. In 1927, anarchists
Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated here after their execution; their ashes were later returned to Italy.
Notable persons interred at Forest Hills
![Firemen's Monument, Boston by John A Wilson- far](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Firemen%27s_Monument%2C_Boston_by_John_A_Wilson-_far.jpg)
*
Harrison Henry Atwood, US House of Representatives (1895–1897), Architect of Boston
*
Simon Willard celebrated
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
clockmaker
A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to ...
*
Rufus Anderson, missionary and author
*
Hugh Bancroft, president of ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''
*
Clarence W. Barron, president of
Dow Jones & Company
*
Cyrus Augustus Bartol, American preacher and writer
*
Amy Beach
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in ...
, composer and pianist
*
Andrew Carney, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
*
James Freeman Clarke
James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) was an American minister, theologian and author.
Biography
Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though h ...
, author
*
Channing H. Cox,
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuset ...
(1921–1925)
*
E. E. Cummings, poet and artist
*
Fanny Davenport, actress
*
William Dawes
William Dawes Jr. (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was one of several men who in April 1775 alerted colonial minutemen in Massachusetts of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the outset ...
(possible
), tanner and American colonial
minuteman
Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Mi ...
*
William Dwight (1831–1888), general in
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
*
Eugene N. Foss,
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuset ...
(1911–1914)
*
Lee M. Friedman (1871–1957), lawyer and historian
*
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...
,
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
*
William Gaston,
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuset ...
(1875–1876)
*
Kahlil Gibran
Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...
(1922–2008),
Sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
*
Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836–1895), preacher, writer, composer, and founder of
Gordon College
*
Curtis Guild
Curtis Guild Jr. (February 2, 1860 – April 6, 1915) was an American journalist, soldier, diplomat and politician from Massachusetts. He was the 43rd Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1906 to 1909. Prior to his election as governor, Guil ...
,
Governor of Massachusetts
The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces.
Massachuset ...
(1906–1909)
*
Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in '' Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...
, author
*
William Heath
William Heath (March 2, 1737 – January 24, 1814) was an American farmer, soldier, and political leader from Massachusetts who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Life and career
Heath m ...
, general in
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
*
Karl Heinzen
Karl Peter Heinzen (22 February 1809 – 12 November 1880) was a revolutionary author who resided mainly in Germany and the United States. He was one of the German Forty-Eighters. He advocated terrorist violence against ruling dynasties and unin ...
, author
* Rev.
Edgar J. Helms
Goodwill Industries International Inc., often shortened in speech and writing to Goodwill (stylized as goodwill), is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides job training, employment placement services, and other community-bas ...
, Founder of Goodwill Industries
*
Charles Hiller Innes, Massachusetts Politician
*
Jennie Kimball, 19th-century actor, soubrette, theatrical manager
*
Faik Konitza, Albanian thinker, writer, journalist, politician
*
Samuel P. Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who Invention, invented the bolometer. He was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of a ...
, aviation pioneer, namesake of NASA Langley Research Center
*
Reggie Lewis
Reginald C. Lewis (November 21, 1965 – July 27, 1993) was an American professional basketball player for the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics from 1987 to 1993.
Early life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Lewis attended high schoo ...
, basketball player for
Boston Celtics
*
Francis Cabot Lowell
Francis Cabot Lowell (April 7, 1775 – August 10, 1817) was an American businessman for whom the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, is named. He was instrumental in bringing the Industrial Revolution to the United States.
Early life
Francis Cabot ...
, after whom
Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...
is named
*
John Lowell
John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distr ...
, 18th century federal judge
*
John Lowell
John Lowell (June 17, 1743 – May 6, 1802) was a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, a Judge of the Court of Appeals in Cases of Capture under the Articles of Confederation, a United States district judge of the United States Distr ...
, 19th century federal judge
*
Martin Milmore
__NOTOC__
Martin Milmore (1844–1883) was an American sculptor.
Life and career
Martin Milmore was born in Sligo, Ireland on September 14, 1844. He immigrated to Boston at age seven, graduated from Boston Latin School in 1860, took art lesso ...
, sculptor
*
Carlotta Monterey, actor and wife of
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
*
Godfrey Morse (1846–1911), lawyer
*
Albert W. Nickerson, railroad executive
*
Theofan S. Noli, Bishop, Prime Minister of
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
*
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
, playwright
*
Joseph C. Pelletier,
district attorney of
Suffolk County, Massachusetts and the Supreme Advocate of the
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney on March 29, 1882. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. It is led by Patrick E. Kelly, the order's 14th Supreme Knight. ...
*
Ambrose Ranney (1821–1899), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
*
Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...
, poet
*
Pauline Agassiz Shaw, reformer and philanthropist
*
Lysander Spooner
Lysander Spooner (January 19, 1808May 14, 1887) was an American individualist anarchist, abolitionist, entrepreneur, essayist, legal theorist, pamphletist, political philosopher, Unitarian and writer.
Spooner was a strong advocate of the labor ...
, early American abolitionist, writer,
anarchist
*
Amy Wentworth Stone, children's writer
*
Lucy Stone, suffragist
*
Anna Eliot Ticknor, distance learning pioneer
*
George Ticknor
George Ticknor (August 1, 1791 – January 26, 1871) was an American academician and Hispanist, specializing in the subject areas of languages and literature. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism of Spanish literature.
...
scholar, founding Trustee of the
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
*
Joseph William Torrey
Col. Joseph William Torrey, Rajah of Ambong and Marudu, (April 22, 1828 in Bath, Maine; – June 22, 1885 in Boston) was an American merchant, president of the American Trading Company of Borneo and co-founder of the American colony "Ellena" ( ...
, merchant, founder of the American colony of "Ellena" in
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...
*
Joseph Warren
Joseph Warren (June 11, 1741 – June 17, 1775), a Founding Father of the United States, was an American physician who was one of the most important figures in the Patriot movement in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution, ...
, physician and patriot, killed at
Battle of Bunker Hill
*
Lawrence Whitney
Lawrence "Larry" Atwood Whitney (February 2, 1891 – April 24, 1941) was an American athlete who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
Career
Whitney graduated from Worcester Academy in 1911, where he lettered in baseball and basketball ...
, Olympic bronze medalist
*
Mary Evans Wilson
Mary Evans Wilson (1866-1928) was one of Boston's leading civil rights activists. She was a founding member of the Boston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the founder of the Women's Service Club.
Early ...
, civil rights activist
*
John A. Winslow, admiral in
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
*
Jacob Wirth, restaurateur
* Two British
war graves
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...
, of a
Royal Field Artillery soldier of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and a
Merchant Navy sailor of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
CWGC Cemetery Report, details obtained from casualty record.
File:WilliamLloydGarrisonGrave.jpg, William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...
grave.
File:EugeneONeilGrave.jpg, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
grave.
File:EECummingsGrave.jpg, E. E. Cummings grave.
File:AnneSextonGrave.jpg, Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book '' Live or Die''. Her poetry details ...
grave.
Gallery
File:Forest Hills Gate.JPG
File:Weeping_European_Beech_Tree_(distance),_Forest_Hills_Cemetery,_Jamaica_Plain,_MA_-_August_15,_2015.jpg, Large Weeping European Beech inside Forest Hills Cemetery
File:Copper_European_Beech_Tree_at_Forest_Hills_Cemetery,_Jamaica_Plain-Boston,_MA_-_August_15,_2015.jpg, Copper European Beech by the pond
File:Forest Hills Bell Tower.JPG
File:Forest Hills Monument.JPG
File:Forest Hills Soldier Inscription.JPG
File:Forest Hills Soldier 2.JPG
File:Forest Hills Soldier.JPG
File:Forest Hills Firefighter 2.JPG
File:Forest Hills Firefighter.JPG
File:Jamaica Plain Mary 2.JPG
File:Jamaica Plain Mary.JPG
File:Forest Hills Lake.JPG
See also
*
List of cemeteries in Boston, Massachusetts
*
References
Further reading
* Sammarco, Anthony Mitchell
''Forest Hills Cemetery'' Arcadia Publishing, Images of America series, 2009
External links
Forest Hills Cemeteryofficial site
Forest Hills Educational TrustPhotos of Forest Hills CemeteryHeart of the Cityarticle and photos
{{Authority control
Cemeteries in Jamaica Plain, Boston
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
1848 establishments in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Boston
Jamaica Plain, Boston
Rural cemeteries