Rural cemetery
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting.
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" . 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.
The garden cemetery in the USA 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 USA was Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, founded by General Dearborn of The Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1831. 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.
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, five more American cemeteries were developed on this model: Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine (1834); Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Massachusetts (1836); Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia (1836); Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn; Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester; and Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore (1838). These were later followed by Lowell Cemetery (1841) in Lowell, Massachusetts; Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum (1841) in Dayton, Ohio; Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh (1844); Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan (1846); Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia (1849); and Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, New York (1859). By the 1860s rural cemeteries could be found on the outskirts of cities and smaller towns across the country.
The development of the American movement paralleled the creation of the landscaped cemeteries in England, with Mount Auburn inspiring the design of its first non-denominational cemetery at Abney Park (1840), one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London.
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.
Today, many of these historic cemeteries are designated landmarks and are cared for by non-profit organizations.
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