The History Of Auburn Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from Dearborn's Guide Through Mount Auburn This latter society was Incorporated, as "The proprietors of mount Auburn cemetery," June 23, 1831, and the ground consecrated on the 24 th of Sept., in that year: the first meeting for agitating this subject, was held in 1825, at the house of Dr. Jacob Bigelow, the present President of the society; with the aid of the late George Bond, Wm. Sturgis, the late Hon. John Lowell, the late Samuel P. Gardiner, Thomas W. Ward, Nathan Hale, and John Tappan; who realized their fondest hopes in founding the first, by date; the most enobling, and most beautiful garden cemetery in this extensive country; to become in time a paradise of sculptuary; of monuments and mausoleums, interspersed amid natures loveliest productions; the capaciousness of the ground will permit 20,000 lots of 300 superficial square feet, each of which is offered at 100 dollars if purchased from any of those surveyed and located for the sale list; but if a lot be preferred in any part of the grounds not thus prepared, an additional sum will be required, say 10 dollars or more; around these lots the Avenues for carriages, 20 feet wide, and Paths for pedestrians, 6 feet wide, are laid out circuitously, to an extent, if measured in one straight line, would span a distance of 30 miles: about 1800 Lots have been disposed of, and about 350 Monuments, Shafts, Cenotaphs, Obelisks, and Slabs, have been raised to hallow and adorn the spot. All monies received from the sale of Lots or from any other source, is expended in ornamenting and improving this Garden Cemetery. During the two first years of its consecration, upwards of 30,000 dollars were expended in grading the roads, building a house, &c. for the Superintendent, fencing, &c. The front entrance Gate from Cambridge road, is a design from an Egyptian model, and is masterly chiseled in Granite, at a cost of about 8 10.000; and the cast iron picketed fence on that whole front line was erected at a cost of about $15,000: a splendid Chapel was completed within its grounds in 1848, at a cost of about $25,000. The highest mound in the Cemetery is called Mt. Auburn, and is 125 feet above Charles River, which meanders by the grounds on its southern border: "it is proposed to erect on this summit a Tower; after some classic model, of sufficient height to be seen above the surrounding trees, to subserve the triple purpose of a landmark, - to identify the spot, and for an Observatory, commanding an uninterrupted view of the surrounding landscape" of cities, towns, hills, farms, rivers, Massachusetts Bay, with its many Islands and shipping; the lantern or cupola of this Tower, to be at least 185 feet above the river Charles. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.