Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic 275-acre (111.3 ha) rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum, and sculpture garden in the Forest Hills section of Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public municipal cemetery for Roxbury, Massachusetts, but was privatized when Roxbury was annexed to Boston in 1868.
Forest Hills Cemetery | |
Forest Hills Cemetery entrance in August 2007
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| Location | 95 Forest Hills Ave. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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| Area | 250 acres (100 ha) |
| Built | 1848 (1848) |
| Architect | Billings, Hammatt; et al. |
| Architectural style | Colonial and Gothic Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 04001219[1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 17, 2004 |
Forest Hills Cemetery is located in the southern part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. It is roughly bounded on the southwest by Walk Hill Street, the southeast, by the American Legion Highway, and the northeast by the Arborway and Morton Street, where its entrance is located. To the northwest, it is separated from Hyde Park Avenue by a small residential area. It abuts Franklin Park, which lies to the northeast, and is a short distance from the Arnold Arboretum to the northwest and forms a greenspace that augments the city's Emerald Necklace of parkland.
The cemetery has a number of notable monuments, including some created by notable sculptors, including Daniel Chester French, whose Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor is in the cemetery, and John Wilson, whose Firemen's Memorial is there.
Forest Hills Cemetery is an active cemetery where interments take place on most days of the year.
On March 28, 1848, Roxbury City Council, the municipal board in charge of the area at that time, gave an order for the purchase of the farms of the Seaverns family to establish a rural municipal park cemetery. Inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery, Forest Hills Cemetery was designed by Henry A. S. Dearborn to provide a park-like setting to bury and remember family and friends. In the year the cemetery was established, another 14+1⁄2 acres (5.9 ha) were purchased from John Parkinson. This made for a little more than 71 acres (29 ha) at a cost of $27,894. The area was later increased to 225 acres (91.1 ha).
After operating as the municipal cemetery for Roxbury, Massachusetts for seven years, it was privatized in 1868 as Roxbury was annexed by neighboring Boston.[2] In 1893, the first crematorium in Massachusetts was added to the cemetery, along with other features like a scattering garden, an indoor columbarium and an outdoor columbarium. In 1927, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated here after their execution; their ashes were later returned to Italy.
42°17′42″N 71°06′22″W / 42.295°N 71.106°W / 42.295; -71.106