Mount Feake Cemetery is a historic cemetery at 203 Prospect Street in
Waltham, Massachusetts
Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, th ...
.
Overview
Established in 1857, it is the city's second cemetery, after
Grove Hill Cemetery
The Grove Hill Cemetery is a historic cemetery at 290 Main Street in Waltham, Massachusetts. Established in 1703, the cemetery was Waltham's only cemetery until 1857, when Mount Feake Cemetery opened. It was authorized in 1703, but its initial ...
, and is one of the best-preserved
garden cemeteries in the state.
It takes its name from its highest point, Mount Feake, which was named by Governor
John Winthrop in 1632 for his future nephew-in-law,
Robert Feake, one of the founding settlers of
Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End.
Watertown ...
. The cemetery was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1989.
Mount Feake Cemetery was designed by
Robert Morris Copeland
Robert Morris Copeland, Sr. (December 11, 1830 – March 28, 1874) was a landscape architecture, landscape architect, city planning, town planner and Union Army officer in the American Civil War. Along with his partner H.W.S. Cleveland of the firm ...
, and was from its inception compared to the older
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...
in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. It stands on a somewhat rugged parcel of land that rises above the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
across from the
Waltham Watch Company
The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., was a company that produced about 40 million watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time delay fuses, and other precision instruments in the Un ...
complex. A series of winding lanes, designed to complement the terrain, provide access to all parts of the cemetery. Most of the grave markers are made of granite, although marble and limestone are also well-represented.
[
One unusual item once added some romantic charm to the cemetery. The remains of a brick water pumping station, built in 1872 and enlarged in 1896-97, stood on the grounds of the cemetery, and provided a picturesque ruin to the environment. Adjacent to this building stood two Italianate houses, as well as a carriage house and sheds, that were historically associated with the pumping station.][ All of these buildings were demolished, probably in the late 20th century.
]
Images
File:Waltham MA Mount Feake Cemetery.JPG, Headstones in Mount Feake Cemetery.
File:Geese at Mount Feake Femetery December 2021.jpg, Canada geese grazing in the grass at Mount Feake Cemetery.
File:Mt Feake Cemetery aerial extract.JPG, Aerial view of Mount Feake Cemetery.
See also
*
References
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Waltham, Massachusetts
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Italianate architecture in Massachusetts
1857 establishments in Massachusetts
Cemeteries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Waltham, Massachusetts
Rural cemeteries