Boston Flora

Tag: forest hills cemetery

  • Wednesday, September 24, 10:00 am – Garden Club of the Back Bay Field Trip to Forest Hills Cemetery

    Forest Hills Cemetery is a 275-acre garden cemetery and arboretum that was founded in 1848, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, and was named one of the “1000 Greatest Places” in Massachusetts. Local historian Dee Morris will give a tour focusing on the property features, with a discussion of the cemetery’s history and horticulture, and the many well-known people buried there. This event is rain or shine. RSVP HERE Carpool and transportation options will be sent to registrants in mid September. This is a members only event. To join, visit https://bostonflora.com/. The Garden Club enjoyed a splendid walking tour of Forest Hills over a decade ago, and it’s certainly time to revisit.

  • Wednesday, August 12, 5:30 pm – Summer Walk at Forest Hills Cemetery with Anthony Sammarco

    Forest Hills’ founder, Henry A.S. Dearborn, was a civic leader with expertise in law and politics, as well as in landscape design and horticulture. The first president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Dearborn, along with others, helped shape the rural garden cemetery movement in the United States. Join Anthony Sammarco for a walking tour celebrating Dearborn and other prominent 19th century horticulturists buried at Forest Hills Cemetery including Samuel Downer, John Richardson and Thaddeus Clapp.

    Meet on Wednesday, August 12 at 5:30 at Main Gate, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water; this is a ninety (90) minute walk (with frequent stops) over varied terrain. $10 per person, sponsored by Forest Hills Cemetery and the Forest Hills Educational Trust. For more information call 617-524-0128.

  • Thursday, July 12, 6:00 pm -9:00 pm (rain date Thursday, July 19) – 14th Annual Lantern Festival

    Join The Friends of Forest Hills Educational Trust on Thursday, July 12 from 6 – 9 pm (rain date Thursday, July 19) for a moving memorial ceremony inspired by Buddhist rituals. Inscribe a lantern with a personal message to friends or family and float it across Lake Hibiscus at sunset. Bring a family picnic.  Enjoy Grand Master Tsuji’s Samurai Taiko drummers, gospel music by Ron Murphy, Irish music by guitar/fiddle duo The Whiskey Boys, and traditional Japanese dance by students of Showa Institute. Photo below by JM Lobert at www.flickeflu.com.

    In this breathtaking ceremony of remembrance, visitors to this lush, Victorian landscape make paper lanterns and set them afloat on the peaceful waters of a small lake. This ritual is based on the traditional Japanese Bon Festival, a time when a door opens to the world of the ancestors, allowing us to send messages to the other side. People enjoy picnics on the grass and a multi-cultural program of music and dance. They decorate their lanterns with calligraphy and notes to those who have died. At sunset, a candle is lit in each lantern, and the glimmering lanterns are set afloat. Drifting and flickering with the wind, the lanterns symbolize the soul’s journey when life ends.  Admission is free, with a $10 donation per lantern. Parking is $10, and people are encouraged to take the T.  No lighting after dark, so bring a flashlight to assist your departure.  For more information, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

     

  • Sundays, October 2 – October 30, 2:00 pm – Visionaries, Innovators and Provocateurs: The Eclectic Men and Women of Forest Hills

    Explore one of Boston’s hidden treasures: a 250 acre Victorian cemetery and arboretum listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and dedicated to nature, art and remembrance.  Every Sunday in October, tour Forest Hills (95 Forest Hills Avenue in Boston) with an expert guide.  On October 2, historian Elise Ciregna will present A Library of Life Stories.  There are more than 100,000 people buried at Forest Hills.  Hear some of their stories and view their monuments – some lavish and dramatic, and others modest or mysterious.  On October 9, social historian Dee Morris explores some fascinating families and their Neighbors.  Forest Hills is made up of many family lots, with entire families laid to rest next to one another.  These lots are next to other ones, creating a neighborhood of Victorian families.  October 16 brings A Visit With E.E. Cummings.  Tour guide Jonathan Clark explores the work and themes of innovative poet E.E. Cummings, whose playful style and daring typography (ee cummings, anyone?) made him one of the most influential poets of the 20th century.  The Women of Forest Hills will be the topic on October 23.  Dee Morris leads visitors through the stories of some of the most celebrated and fascinating women of 19th and 290th century Boston.  A hotbed of feminism and firsts in the Victorian era, Boston gave rise to such pioneers as suffragette and abolitionist Lucy Stone, historian-author Annie Haven Thwing, and others both notable and notorious.  Visit the graves of artists, politicians, School Board activists, even spirit mediums.  Finally, on October 30, there will be the Victorian Spiritualism Tour, just in time for All Hallows’ Eve.  Spiritualists believed that death was a transition to a new form of existence.  People who had “crossed over” could be contacted through seances and spirit guides.  Visit some of the religious leaders and practitioners, as well as skeptics, of this controversial 19th century movement.  Each program is $9, and Forest Hills has free parking and is accessible by T.  For directions and more information, visit www.foresthillstrust.org.

  • Thursday, August 4, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Forest Hills: An Early American Garden Cemetery

    Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, author of Forest Hills Cemetery: 1848 – 2008, discusses the history of the cemetery and explores the rural cemetery movement of the nineteenth century on Thursday, August 4, from 5:30 – 7:30 at Historic New England’s Otis House in Boston.  The reception, co-sponsored with The Victorian Society in America, NE Chapter, begins at 5:30, with the talk commencing at 6:30.  $10 for HNE and Victorian Society members, $12 non-members.  Registration is recommended – call 617-994-5934, or visit www.historicnewengland.org.

  • Thursday, April 28 – Sunday, May 1 – Birds and Bards: A Festival Celebrating Birds, Poetry, and Nature

    Visit the Arnold Arboretum, Boston Nature Center, Forest Hills Cemetery, Franklin Park Coalition and the Franklin Park Zoo,  Thursday, April 28 to Sunday, May 1 for Birds and Bards: A Festival Celebrating Birds, Poetry, and Nature. Spend the weekend exploring birds, poetry, and nature in over 1000 acres of green space along Boston’s Emerald Necklace. The festival includes activities for children and adults, most of which are free!

    For complete event listings and information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu/news-events/birds-and-bards.

     

  • Thursday, June 24, 5:30 pm – Roxbury Bike Tour

    The Forest Hills Trust, in collaboration with Discover Roxbury and the Franklin Park Coalition, are planning a Roxbury Bike Tour on Thursday, June 24, beginning at 5:30 pm at the main gate at Forest Hills, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Boston.  Ride to the southern reaches of Roxbury and tour historic green spaces: Forest Hills Cemetery and Franklin Park.  The cemetery was originally founded as a public burial ground in 1848 by the Mayor of Roxbury and is the final resting place for prominent Roxburyites such as abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, surgeon Susan Dimock, entrepreneur Joseph “Wally” Walcott, and arts leader Elma Lewis. After touring the cemetery, ride through Franklin Park alongside the 200-acre forest and catch the view from Schoolmaster Hill where Ralph Waldo Emerson once lived. At the end of the ride, purchase a light meal at the Golf Clubhouse and watch the setting sun on the terrace. Helmets are required. The tour has a 20 person limit, and will be held weather permitting.  Tickets are $5, and may be purchased on line at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/111407.  For more information, log on to www.discoverroxbury.org or www.foresthillstrust.org.

    http://www.discoverroxbury.org/communities/4/004/006/401/624/images/4528123433.jpg

  • Sunday, May 16, 2:00 pm – Horticulturists of Forest Hills

    Discover the horticulturists of 19th century Boston, who developed many of the fruits, flowers and trees that we enjoy today, during a tour led by author and historian Anthony Sammarco at Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue, Jamaica Plain, on Sunday, May 16, beginning at 2:00 pm.  The walking tour is sponsored by The Forest Hills Educational Trust, and there will be a $9 fee to attend.  Sample some of the edible creations of these pioneering horticulturists, including Bartlett’s Pear and Downer’s Late Cherry.  For more information, call 617-524-3354, or log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.  Postcard below painted by Catharina Klein (1861 – 1929).

    http://postcardcollector.org/forum/extensions/InlineImages/image.php?AttachmentID=295

  • Monday, November 2, 4:00 – 6:00 pm – Day of the Dead at Forest Hills Cemetery

    November 2 is the date of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the traditional Mexican ceremonies honoring family and friends who have died. Over the past few years, Forest Hills Cemetery has served as a location for such a ceremony, and this year is no exception. The ceremony begins at 4:00pm, as the sun is setting.  Hundreds of people, including families with children, attend and participate with their own private remembrances.

    Join The Forest Hills Educational Trust for a traditional Mexican celebration of remembrance co-sponsored by Latin American folkloric performance group La Pinata. Based on the ancient traditions of Mexico’s indigenous peoples who believed that the souls of the dead return each year to visit their families, the Day of the Dead celebrates the continuous cycle of life and death, embracing cultures from all throughout the Americas. Enjoy a program of music and dance as individuals bring offerings of flowers, copies of photos, mementos, and traditional skull-shaped sugar candies to leave on a decorated candle-lit altar for those departed loved ones. Dress warmly. Bring a flashlight. Bilingual: English/Spanish. Admission: Free. Co-sponsored by La Piñata and Spontaneous Celebrations. Visit them at http://www.spontaneouscelebrations.org.

    For more information, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

    Day of the Dead

  • Sunday, November 15, 4:00 pm – Forest Hills Cemetery Book Party

    Join author Anthony Sammarco and The Forest Hills Educational Trust on Sunday, November 15 at 4:00 pm at Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain, for the launch party of Mr. Sammarco’s new book, Forest Hills Cemetery, 1848 – 2008.

    This new photographic history of Forest Hills Cemetery  celebrates the 160th anniversary of the cemetery. This book is lavishly illustrated and sales will benefit the Trust’s education and preservation projects.

    Laid out in 1848 as a rural garden cemetery by Henry A.S. Dearborn,  its 275 magnificent acres have been the resting place of people of all walks of life, ethnicities, religion and race. Among these are poet Anne Sexton, playwright Eugene O’Neill, ee cummings and William Lloyd Garrison.

    Forest Hills’ landscape is a museum of sculpture, art and monuments that chronicle the Victorian age to the present. The first crematorium in the United States was here and prominent Bostonian suffragette Lucy Stone was the first person to be cremated at Forest Hills in 1893. An active cemetery and an all embracing place, Forest Hills offers a bucolic and picturesque setting for the “gathering of generations,” and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Anthony Sammarco has written over fifty books in the Arcadia series, and is a trustee of the Forest Hills Educational Trust and teaches at the Urban College of Boston.  For more information, and for directions, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.