Glenwood Cemetery (Maynard, Massachusetts)
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Glenwood 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-19th century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries, which tended to be churchyards. Rural cemeter ...
northeast of Parker Street and Great Road in
Maynard, Massachusetts Maynard is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 22 miles west of Boston, in the MetroWest and Greater Boston region of Massachusetts and borders Acton, Concord, Stow and Sudbury. The town's populatio ...
. It is one of the first municipal creations of the town after its incorporation in 1871, and is the resting place of many of its early and prominent residents, including
Amory Maynard Amory Maynard (1804–1890) was a textile manufacturer who was the namesake of Maynard, Massachusetts. Early life Amory Maynard was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts in 1804 to Isaac and Lydia Howe Maynard. The Maynards were descendants of a Pur ...
, founder of the
Assabet Woolen Mill The Assabet Woolen Mill was originally a textile factory complex founded by Amory Maynard in 1847 near the Assabet River in the northern part of what was then Sudbury, Massachusetts. The area became the Maynard, Massachusetts, Town of Maynard in ...
and namesake of the community. The cemetery was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
(NR#04000425) on May 12, 2004.


Description and history

Glenwood Cemetery is located at the northeast corner of Parker Street (
Massachusetts Route 27 Route 27 is a south–north state highway in eastern Massachusetts. Its southern terminus is at Massachusetts Route 106, Route 106 in Kingston, Massachusetts, Kingston and its northern terminus is at Massachusetts Route 4, Route 4 in Chelms ...
) and Great Road (
Massachusetts Route 117 Route 117 is a east–west state highway in Massachusetts, running from Route 12 in Leominster in northeast Worcester County to U.S. Route 20 (US 20) in Waltham in central Middlesex County. Route description Route 117 begins in the ci ...
), a short way south of the town center. It has entrance is on Great Road, roughly midway between Parker Street and Old Mill Road, and on Parker Street, nearly opposite Walker Street. The cemetery has two distinct sections, reflecting its growth over time. The oldest portion of the cemetery is in size, and was purchased by the town in 1871, the year of its incorporation out of portions of
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
and Stow. This area was laid out in a version of the style of the then-fashionable
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-19th century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries, which tended to be churchyards. Rural cemeter ...
movement, with a circular lane at the entrance and a series of parallel lanes behind. At the center of the circle there was originally a
gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...
, which was to be a focal point of the cemetery. It was destroyed in the
New England Hurricane of 1938 The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near th ...
. The main gate (image) is not the original. It replace an earlier cast iron gate in 1928. The majority of the trees in the cemetery are sugar maples, planted after the hurricane to replace downed trees. About two dozen burials pre-date the official creation of Glenwood Cemetery, suggesting that it was functioning as a privately owned cemetery before the land was purchased by the town. East of this original portion is the "new cemetery" section laid out in the 1930s, using labor funded by the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
. It has a series of concentric lanes in a roughly ovoid shape, and is joined to the old section by a single lane. The Maynard family crypt is a prominent feature on the north side of Glenwood Cemetery, within sight of passers-by on Route 27. Amory Maynard (1804-1890) started a woolen mill on the
Assabet River The Assabet River is a small, long river located about west of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed October 3, 2011 The Assabet rises ...
in 1846. In 1871 the village of mill workers and other residents officially became the Town of Maynard. The crypt is an imposing earth-covered mound with a granite facade facing the road. The mound is 90 feet across and about 12 feet tall. The stonework facade is approximately 30 feet across. The ceiling of the crypt has a glass skylight surmounted by an exterior cone of iron grillwork. The granite lintel above the door reads "MAYNARD." Chiseled above the lintel are the year 1880 and the Greek letters Alpha and Omega entwined with a Fleur-de-lis Cross. Amory Maynard, his wife, Mary, their third son, Harlan, and nineteen other descendants were interred in the crypt. Oldest son Lorenzo Maynard and his family were buried at
Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark. Dedicated in ...
, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Second son William was buried at Hope Cemetery, Worcester, Massachusetts, along with his wife and four of their seven children.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts This is a listing of places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. With more than 1,300 listings, the county has more listings than a ...


References


External links

* * {{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Cemeteries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Maynard, Massachusetts Rural cemeteries Cemeteries established in the 1870s