OWNERSHIP
CONDITIONS
USE
CONTEXT
HISTORY
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
DESIGN ISSUES
PLANNING
TESTIMONIES

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OWNERSHIP:
The land is privately owned by the Forest Hills Cemetery.

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CONDITIONS:
The 275-acre Forest Hills Cemetery is an historically, architecturally, and artistically significant landscape. It is a sculpture garden with the largest collection of Victorian memorial sculpture in the nation. It is also an arboretum and, in recent years, has become more aggressive in terms of landscape management, including tree planting. The Cemetery has 2,000-square-feet of nursery space. In 2000, the staff planted 2,000 trees and shrubs, including rare species not found elsewhere in the region, and 20,000 annual flowers.

Permanent physical highlights within the Cemetery include six statues by Daniel Chester French, one of America's greatest sculptors; the Roxbury Soldiers Lot and the Soldiers Monument, which includes a statue of Martin Miltmore and was dedicated in 1868; and contemporary sculpture and environmental art from special exhibits organized by the Forest Hills Educational Trust.

Lake Hibiscus, which is located almost exactly in the center lowlands of the Cemetery, is a storm drain retention area. It was dug by hand and is home to a flock of Canadian geese that managers consider problematic. The lake also attracts bufflehead, mute swans, and mallards.

The Forest Hills Cemetery is still an active cemetery. In 2000, people from 25 communities in Greater Boston were buried in the Cemetery. Bud Hanson, director of the Forest Hills Cemetery, estimates that the Cemetery has at most 30 years before it will be full.

Contemporary sculpture and environmental art:
The "Spirit of the Trees" environmental art exhibit and a contemporary sculpture exhibit have greatly enhanced the experience of visiting the Forest Hills Cemetery in recent years. The exhibits have been organized by the Forest Hills Educational Trust and represent a departure from the traditional styles of most of the art that is permanently in the Cemetery. For example, sculpture such as "The Sentinel" by Fern Cunningham, a Dorchester resident, depicts a woman of African American descent sitting cross-legged on a block of Roxbury Puddingstone. Other sculpture includes modern, abstract art, a sculpture with moving, flowing pieces built to look like a flock of birds in flight, and a deer frozen on the edge of a cliff. The "Spirit of the Trees" exhibit featured less traditional artistic forms that required visitors to navigate the exhibits using a map to hunt down subtle pieces of artwork literally hanging in the trees or in the woods between the cracks in a stone wall.

Poetry readings: 
In 2003, the Forest Hills Cemetery launched a new program called "Poetry in the Chapel," which invites local poets to the Cemetery to read their work. The readings, which were inspired by poets such as e.e. cummings and Ann Sexton who are buried in the Cemetery, will occur on the first Sunday of each month in the fall, winter, and spring.

Periphery:
Most of the land around Forest Hills Cemetery is open space (Franklin Park, the Canterbury urban wild, St. Michaels Cemetery, and the Forest Hills Mausoleum). The only dense neighborhood on the edge of the Cemetery (the Forest Hills neighborhood) is isolated from the main section by a forested buffer area. Much of the entire southeastern border of the Cemetery along Canterbury Street is wild, poorly maintained land that often serves as a dumping ground.

Forested land:
Along the northeastern edge of the Forest Hills Cemetery between Walk Hill Street and Yale Terrace, is a strip of old-growth, loosely managed, forested land. In contrast to the groomed, manicured land in the rest of the arboretum/ Cemetery, this is wild area has a rough trail that runs along the inside of the perimeter through the forest, which is dominated by white pines. Sections of the path are steep and rocky.

Signage, entryways, and access:
There are four entryways to Forest Hills Cemetery. The main gate is off Morton Street and Shea Circle in the Forest Hills area. Two roads access the main gate. Until the summer of 2002, there were small signs at both access roads that did not convey the historic and artistic significance of the site or the fact that the Cemetery is open to the public. New color signage at the main entrance in 2002 reflects the special offerings of the Cemetery and encourages visitation.

The approach to the main gate is a sweeping, manicured road lined with plantings and a wrought-iron fence. The road creates a dramatic sense of transition from the development and activity of the city to the seclusion and solemnity of the Cemetery. The access road to the main gate passes by a smaller entrance to the Cemetery that is connected to a caretaker building. This entrance is frequently locked.

The main gate was originally an Egyptian design but has since been replaced with a 13th century-style Gothic gateway that reflects the influence of English cathedrals and features of early English design such as blind arcading.

A second gate to the Cemetery is found on Walk Hill Street across the street from the Forest Hills Crematorium, which was the first crematorium in New England. At times the gate is open and at times there is only enough room for a pedestrian to pass through. There is a small sign for the Forest Hills Cemetery here. A third entrance is located along Canterbury Street across from a youth detention center. This formal gated entrance is virtually always locked.
The fourth entrance to the Cemetery is a pedestrian entrance found at the end of Tower Road, a narrow residential road densely settled with two and three-family residences. This entrance is accessible to those who use public transportation to Forest Hills MBTA Station as well as to abutting residents. The formal wrought iron gate is clearly labeled. Of the four streets in the Forest Hills neighborhood that dead end into the Forest Hills Cemetery (Barlow, Weld Hill, Woodlawn, and Tower), only Tower offers access of any kind to the cemetery.

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USE:
In addition to the obvious uses of a cemetery, a limited number of people use the Forest Hills Cemetery as a peaceful place for walking, running, and picnicking. In contrast to other historic cemeteries in Greater Boston, both cyclists and dogs on leashes are permitted within the Cemetery. According to local real estate agents, the Cemetery has become a draw for prospective residents who want to live near to a safe open space. Use of the Cemetery for recreation is, however, limited. For cultural or personal reasons, some residents consider walking or running in a cemetery inappropriate. Cultural sensitivity to the dead is particularly acute among Chinese and Chinese Americans, many of whom would not consider recreating in this type of sacred space. Other residents are simply unaware that the Forest Hills Cemetery is an arboretum, art museum, and garden as well as a burying ground.

Increasingly, area residents also enjoy special artistic and cultural events at the Forest Hills Cemetery offered by the Forest Hills Educational Trust and described above. In addition to the art exhibits, the Trust offers a yearly dog walk, lectures, and walks, and the increasingly popular Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival is held at Lake Hibiscus and is a ceremony that has been adapted from a traditional Japanese festival known as "obon." The ceremony is intended to honor the dead and invite them to visit the earth. After an evening picnic, participants light lanterns and release them into the lake. The population that attends these events is dominated by Jamaica Plain residents.

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CONTEXT:
The Forest Hills Cemetery directly borders Franklin Park and is very close to the Boston Nature Center. A pedestrian connection between the Cemetery and Franklin Park exists along Cemetery Road and along a stone staircase to Circuit Drive. No pedestrian connections exist between the Cemetery and Boston Nature Center.

As explained below, the Forest Hills Cemetery was the first large public open space in the area, and paved the way for the establishment of large public parks such as Franklin Park towards the end of the 1800s.

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HISTORY:
In 1848, the town of West Roxbury purchased the Seaverns Farm and founded a new rural cemetery. The site was chosen in part because its rocky soil was inappropriate for agriculture. The hay and orchards in the original farm initially brought in income for the cemetery. Canterbury Street was the only original access point to the cemetery, and people traveled through the property with wagons and oxen. In the mid 1800s, garden cemeteries were "so popular for picnics and other public outings that they set the stage for the development of the great urban parks" (Fairbanks, The Art of Forest Hills, 1998, p698). This cemetery was no exception.

Forest Hills was so named for a series of hills that rolled through the land, many of which have since been flattened out. The whole area was initially cleared of all trees and the hills were far more visible as a result. The cemetery was one of the first rural cemeteries in the United States. At the time it was established, it was a model for protected areas and set the stage for the creation of public parks by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 19th century. Forest Hills was so popular when it was first established, and brought such a massive number of visitors to the area, that the railroad company was prompted to change the name of the nearest station to "Forest Hills."

Maintenance over time:
Around the turn of the century, extravagant care was lavished on the Cemetery. The Cemetery employed 128 gardeners from 1900 until about the beginning of World War I. According to Boston Globe  reporter Peter Hotton, the decline of the Forest Hills Cemetery began during World War I when maintenance was drastically reduced, and the 2,500 trees in the Cemetery went untended. This period of neglect extended for decades and was followed by the creation of a five-year plan of reforestation in the mid-1990s. Under the direction of Mark Peters, Director of Horticulture, the grounds crew took out hundreds of yew trees and began planting new and varied tree species (Hotton, P., "Rebirth and resurrection at Forest Hills, a jewel in the Emerald Necklace," The Boston Globe,  April 5, 1998). Currently, there are about 13 gardeners working at the cemetery, as well as two arborists and a horticulturalist.

Graves:
In contrast to other rural cemeteries, such as Mt. Auburn in Cambridge, Forest Hills was a municipal project with plots that were intended to be accessible to residents of all incomes. There was a "potters field" for the indigent as well as premium plots for the wealthy.

Poets e. e. Cummings and Anne Sexton, playwright Eugene O'Neil, and numerous famous abolitionists are a few of the historical figures buried at Forest Hills Cemetery. Over time, Forest Hills has been favored by a variety of ethnic groups. There have been waves of Greeks, Irish, Germans, and Italians buried there. Today, there are many Chinese and Haitians who bury their dead here. Many Chinese and Chinese Americans request to be buried in east-facing graves, while Haitian funerals tend to involve fruit, candles, and incense. As of 1998, 99,000 people had been buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery.

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:
Tree management:
Because Forest Hills Cemetery was cleared of all trees when it was established, the trees growing there today tend to be clumped in single-aged stands. This means that without management, the trees within the Forest Hills Cemetery are at particular risk of dying simultaneously as they reach the end of their natural lives. This has been a problem with trees at Jamaica Park/ Jamaica Pond as well as at Franklin Park. In response, the Forest Hills Cemetery has initiated an aggressive, long-term strategy for tree planting and management.

Multiple diseases and problems plague the trees at Forest Hills Cemetery and elsewhere in the Heart of the City. Hemlock wooly adelgid has attacked the Canadian hemlocks of Forest Hills Cemetery as well as every other protected area in the Heart of the City. The stately elms that once lined Lake Hibiscus were completely wiped out by Dutch Elm Disease. A few species of trees dominate the site -- 80% of the trees are sugar maple, red oak, white pine and Canadian hemlock. Gypsy moths attack the oak trees.

The staff at Forest Hills Cemetery focuses their efforts on making the Cemetery more biologically diverse and allowing for more than one age-class of trees in each area. According to Mark Peters, 15 to 20 trees die from old age each year. The management staff is responding to this problem with yearly plantings and careful forest management or "silviculture."

Canadian geese:
According to Peters, the proliferation of Canadian geese near Lake Hibiscus has been a significant environmental management issue at the Cemetery.

Invasive species:
Japanese knotweed, which may have been introduced to the area by Frederick Law Olmsted, has become a problematic invasive species in Forest Hills Cemetery, Franklin Park, and elsewhere in the Heart of the City. Forest Hills gardeners beat the knotweed back on a regular basis and occasionally use herbicides to kill it.

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DESIGN ISSUES:
Today, Forest Hills Cemetery is not well utilized as a recreational space in part because it not widely known as a place for passive recreation. Pedestrian access is limited and in the past signage has been poor and has failed to reflect the special attributes of the cemetery. The closest entrance to the Forest Hills MBTA Station -- the one that Forest Hills Educational Trust directs pedestrians to -- is west of the main entrance, hidden at the end of a residential street (Tower Street). The main entrance to the cemetery at Morton Street lacks crosswalks and traffic signals. There is no signage for the Forest Hills Cemetery at Forest Hills Station.

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PLANNING:
In light of the fact that the Forest Hills Cemetery is likely to be full in only a few more decades, director Bud Hanson has attempted to purchase ten acres of land that abut the southeast edge of the Cemetery. The land is state land that is sometimes referred to as Canterbury II urban wild. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) put several restrictions on the use of the land and the deal has not been sealed (Alice Giordano, "Plan for correctional facility at cemetery irks neighbors. Forest Hills area already has too many institutions, opponents say,"The Boston Globe, Jan. 26, 2002).


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TESTIMONIES:
"I love this place. Sometimes when I come walking, I am one of the only people here. It seems like nobody knows about this place!" (walker in Forest Hills Cemetery on a September morning in 2001).

"Forest Hills Cemetery is a place for the living. Our mission is preserve, enhance and share the unique experience of this historical garden cemetery with utmost respect for the interned" (Cecily Miller, director of the Forest Hills Educational Trust).

"I doubt any of the residents of Roslindale who have lived here less than five years (that's 50% of the neighborhood, according to the BRA) have ever been inside Forest Hills Cemetery or even know what is there. It's got to be the area's hidden jewel. The best kept secret around" (Carter Wilke, Roslindale resident and member of the Longfellow Area Neighborhood Association).

"Advertising is not directed towards the people in the immediate surrounding communities. These assets can be sold to the broader population. So many school children are close by - they could be educated in architecture and art. Kids should be having picnics there!" (Steven Busby, Mattapan Community Development Corporation).

"Growing up, I had no connection to the place. Forget it. I went to a funeral there once, but that was it" (Frank O'Brien, long term Heart of the City resident, born 1928).

"[Garden-style 19th century cemeteries] were meant to be a place where people living in the stress and density of the urban environment could come and reconnect with nature. That's why they're so beautifully landscaped" (Cecily Miller, director of the Forest Hills Educational Trust, from an article by Louise Kennedy, "Artists' works bring life to a sacred space," The Boston Globe, June 21, 2002). 

"The rural garden cemetery, of which Forest Hills is one of the most famous, was created as a place of beauty, a place where people would come and enjoy a picnic. They were surrounded with life" (Bud Hanson, director of the Forest Hills Cemetery, from an article by Jenny Attiyeh, "Jamaica Plain; the hills are alive with words," The Boston Globe, Jan. 12, 2003).

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