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The rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting.

Landscaping and tree planting at Green-Wood Cemetery in the Brooklyn borough of New York City

As early as 1711 the architect Sir Christopher Wren had advocated the creation of burial grounds on the outskirts of town, "inclosed with a strong Brick Wall, and having a walk round, and two cross walks, decently planted with Yew-trees".^[1] By the early 19th century, with urban populations expanding, the existing churchyards were growing unhealthily overcrowded with graves stacked upon each other, or emptied and reused for newer burials. As a reaction to this, the first landscaped cemetery was opened in 1804, as the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

United States

Hunnewell family obelisk in Mount Auburn Cemetery

The garden cemetery in the United States was a development of this style. Prior to this, urban burial grounds were generally sectarian located on small plots within cities. The new design took the cemetery out of the control of the church, using an attractive park built on a grander scale, using architectural design and careful planting, inspired by the English garden movement.

Its first manifestation in the United States was Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, founded by Dr. Jacob Bigelow and General Dearborn of The Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1831. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story delivered the dedication address on September 24, 1831. Mount Auburn inspired dozens of other rural cemeteries across New England, the northeast, and the upper midwest mostly. Many were accompanied by dedication addresses similar to Story's, which linked the cemeteries to the mission of creating a Christian republic.^[2] Coinciding with the growing popularity of horticulture and the Romantic aesthetic taste for pastoral beauty, Mount Auburn was developed as a “domesticated landscape” popularized by 19th century English landscape design. Its plan included retention of natural features like ponds and mature forests with added roads and paths that followed the natural contours of the land, as well as the planting of hundreds of native and exotic trees and plants.^[3]

1861 engraving showing a plan for a rural cemetery by N. B. Schubarth of Rhode Island, United States

Civil War Memorial by Martin Milmore at Chester Rural Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania

Mount Auburn quickly grew as popular site for both burials and public recreation, attracting locals as well as tourists from across the country and Europe.
Within 5 years, at least eight more American cemeteries were developed on this model:

• 
  Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine (1834);


• 
  Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia (1836);


• 
  Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Massachusetts (1836);


• 
  Rural Cemetery in New Bedford, Massachusetts (1837);


• 
  Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York (1838);


• 
  Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn (1838);


• 
  Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore (1838); and


• Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware (1843).

These were later followed by:

• 
  Valley Cemetery (1840) in Manchester, New Hampshire;


• 
  Lowell Cemetery (1841) in Lowell, Massachusetts;


• 
  Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum in Dayton, Ohio (1841);


• 
  Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York (1844);


• 
  Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky (1844);


• 
  Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh (1844);


• 
  Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati (1844);


• 
  Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island (1846);


• 
  Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan (1846);


• 
  Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky (1848);


• 
  Forest Hills Cemetery in Roxbury, now Boston (1848);


• 
  Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio (1848);


• 
  Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York (1848);


• 
  Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo (1849)


• 
  Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia (1849);


• 
  Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina (1850);


• 
  Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee (1850);


• 
  Erie Cemetery in Erie, Pennsylvania (1851);


• 
  Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee (1852);


• Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina (1852)


• 
  Chester Rural Cemetery in Chester, Pennsylvania (1863)


• 
  Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut (1866)


• Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1871)

By the 1860s rural cemeteries could be found on the outskirts of cities and smaller towns across the country.^[4] These cemeteries often became the home of tall obelisks, spectacular mausoleums, and magnificent sculptures.^[5]

Canada

• 
  Mount Hermon Cemetery in Sillery, Québec City, Canada (1848)

David Bates Douglass, a military and civilian engineer, working in the capacity as a consulting architect, designed the landscape layout of Albany Rural Cemetery, between 1845—1846. He modeled his design of the Albany Rural Cemetery, as well as his subsequent and final one, Mount Hermon Cemetery (1848), in a rural area outside of Quebec City, Canada, upon his first design, the highly acclaimed Green-Wood Cemetery, in what at the time was a rural section of Brooklyn. All three of Douglass' rural, garden cemeteries have been conferred a historic status, by their respective nations.^[6][7]

England

The development of the American movement paralleled the creation of the landscaped cemeteries in England, with Mount Auburn inspiring the design of London's first non-denominational cemetery at Abney Park (1840), one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries.

Germany

Among the first of the Parkfriedhof established in German-speaking Europe, the South Cemetery (Südfriedhof) in Kiel dates from 1869, the Riensberger Friedhof in Bremen dates from 1875, the 1881 Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin, the 1881 Südfriedhof in Leipzig, and the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. The Ohlsdorf was transformed from a treeless, sandy plain into 92 acres of sculpted, wooded landscape by its first director, architect Wilhelm Cordes.^[8] In 2016 it stands as the largest rural cemetery in the world,^[9] and has been the largest cemetery in Europe since its opening in 1875.

As of 1911 rural cemeteries were still unusual in Germany.^[10] Other examples include the Waldfriedhof Dahlem in Berlin, 1931.

Recreational use

Oak Hill Cemetery, a garden cemetery in Washington, D.C., in the United States.

Rural cemeteries, from their inception, were intended as civic institutions designed for public use. Before the widespread development of public parks, the rural cemetery provided a place for the general public to enjoy refined outdoor recreation amidst art and sculpture previously available only for the wealthy.^[11]

Curation and upkeep

Today, many of these historic cemeteries are designated landmarks and are cared for by non-profit organizations.

See also

• Rural Cemetery Act

References