A Good Neighbor: John Chipman Gray the Elder
By Karen Falb
Mount Auburn Cemetery and the nearby Larchwood Neighborhood (Fig. 1) have a history going back to the Cemetery’s founding in 1831. At that time, the neighborhood was an estate owned by John Chipman Gray (1793-1881), a state politician and horticulturist who resided on Boston’s Summer Street. He used his Cambridge property as a family farmstead and summer residence convenient to Boston, where he served as both a state representative and senator from 1829 to 1852. Researchers today can find him listed as John Gray, John C. Gray, and John Chipman Gray the Elder. His estate was inherited by his nephew John Chipman Gray (1839-1915), son of Horace Gray, Harvard Law Professor and partner in the law firm Ropes and Gray. After the death of the younger Gray, the estate was developed into the Larchwood Neighborhood in 1915.
John Gray was one of the many gentleman farmers of the Boston area involved with prominent voluntary associations such as the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Society for the Promotion of Massachusetts Agriculture. He was also a founding member and first vice president (1829-1833) of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society during its early years, when it championed the project of developing a rural cemetery. Although the Society’s president Henry Dearborn and corresponding secretary Jacob Bigelow were the masterminds of what became Mount Auburn, the support of people like John Gray made their efforts successful.
One of the most important of these supporters was the merchant and art collector George W. Brimmer, whose land bordering Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge became the core of the Cemetery (Fig. 2). Beginning in 1825, Brimmer had purchased acreage in Watertown and Cambridge with the idea of making an estate. But by 1831 he had given up the idea because of ill health, and was eager to sell the land to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for its new cemetery. One of Brimmer’s original Cambridge parcels was purchased from John Gray’s father, the Boston merchant and Massachusetts politician William “Billy” Gray. However, Gray had retained 1.3 acres directly in front of his mansion and the triangle of land between Brattle and Mount Auburn Streets.
When his father died later in 1825, John Gray inherited the 1.3-acre parcel with the estate and mansion. He then sold that land to George Brimmer in September 1831, adding to the total area purchased by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. And later that fall, he helped support the Society’s financing of the cemetery land by buying three contiguous lots for the Gray family’s future needs. Since he and his wife, Elizabeth, had no children, those future needs included those of his older single brother, Frances Calley Gray, and his younger brother Horace Gray and his family. His parents were already interred in St. Paul’s Cathedral on Tremont Street in Boston.
Located on a foothill by the intersection of Hemlock and Lily Paths, the Gray family lots are on a line from the original mansion house site to the Mount Auburn mount. Perhaps the lots were chosen by John and Elizabeth for existing views both from and to the mansion. 25 years after their purchase, the first burial was of Frances Calley Gray in 1856. His poignant marble memorial of an old loyal dog catches one’s attention to this day. The next burial was of Horace Gray in 1873, marked by a simple marble stone. John’s wife, Elizabeth Pickering Gardner Gray (aunt to Isabella Stewart Gardner’s husband), followed in 1879, and John joined her in 1881 (Fig. 4).
What should John Gray be remembered for today? Certainly his support of the Cemetery during its first year is important. This included his leadership in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society as well as personal decisions to sell land to complete the cemetery and provide financial support by buying lots. Later he was a Trustee from 1845-1849 and a neighbor for fifty years. It is easy to imagine, though, that as a horticulturist he must have been at least initially disappointed when the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s goal of developing experimental gardens in or near his former 1.3 acres was dropped by 1835 when Mount Auburn became a separate corporation.
Meanwhile, the Larchwood Neighborhood still memorializes him as well, especially his interest in trees. Its name was inspired by the trees he and other family descendants planted at the edge of the estate for privacy. Many of these interesting estate trees were saved by the architectural landscape firm Pray Hubbard and White when they planned the neighborhood in 1915. A few from the Gray estate survive to this day. (Fig. 6 – top photo. A memorial commemorating the 100th birthday of the neighborhood placed in the Larchwood cul de sac on Fresh Pond Lane. Photo by Karen Falb.)
Karen Falb is a retired biology teacher and landscape historian. She and her husband, Peter Falb, have enjoyed the Cemetery’s beauty and history for almost 50 years as neighbors living in the Larchwood Neighborhood, almost on the original site of the Gray’s family mansion now located on Larch Road.
President Alan Chesney’s Photographic Legacy
A former Air Force pilot who served 35 missions in World War II, Alan Chesney was president and trustee of Mount Auburn from 1968 to 1988. During that time, Chesney oversaw the sale of 15 acres of land for family lots and single graves, the addition of 4,000 new grave spaces, and the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs. He also established the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery (FOMAC) in 1986, a program that continues to promote the appreciation of the Cemetery through its preservation, horticultural rejuvenation, and educational programs. Photo above: Flowering Tree, Wilkinson Monument, Undated.
(more…)Preserving Washington Tower
If there’s one spot people are most likely to remember about Mount Auburn, it’s Washington Tower. At 62-feet tall, the Tower provides a spectacular view of the Boston skyline, and has been one of the most beloved features in our landscape ever since it was built in 1854.
Today, the Tower is in need of preservation. If we want to guarantee that we can keep it open to the public for another century, it will require major work in the coming years.
Thanks to generous support from grants and individual gifts, we were able to complete a preservation assessment of the Tower in 2020. We now have a complete assessment, options for repair and improvements, and estimated budgets to support planning for restoration of this iconic structure.
Further planning will be needed over the next few years before the full preservation begins. But already, the 2020 assessment has shown that there is significant work to be done on the Tower’s masonry. Fortunately, its large blocks of Quincy granite are extremely durable. However, as water has worked its way into the walls from upward-facing joints at the top of the Tower, the stones have shifted – creating opportunities for water to get in. Stopping this cycle of deterioration will require dismantling the top quarter of the Tower and rebuilding it using the existing granite. Additionally, the wood tracery windows will be repaired or reconstructed, new lighting installed, and safety improvements made to the stair rail. Finally, the architect presented potential plans for increasing the accessibility of the site, including a graded path and handicap parking along the road. Stay tuned for more updates on the launch of this multi-year preservation initiative!
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide to the Old Town Cemetery in Mansfield, MA
Beyond the Gates: A Cemetery Explorer’s Guide is a blog hosted by The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery written and researched by Corinne Elicone and Zoë G. Burnett. Our intention for this blog is to rediscover the out of the way and obscure graveyards that surround us, as well as to uncover new histories among the more well-trod grounds of prominent burial places. With this blog as a guide, visitors can experience cemeteries in a new way. As important landmarks of cultural heritage, our hope is that interest in these quiet places will help to preserve and educate us about our past and, ultimately, everyone’s shared future.
OLD TOWN CEMETERY | MANSFIELD, MA (~1658)
Following last week’s post, Corinne and I also toured another of Mansfield’s thirteen cemeteries during our visit. Possibly the burial ground of Mansfield’s first parish, settled in 1658, many graves in the Old Town Cemetery predate the town’s 1775 incorporation. The town Common is watched over by the Congregational Church’s historic copper steeple, built on foundations laid in 1764. This site is the last in a series of meetinghouses that served as the hubs of all early American towns, and Mansfield is a great example of how these communities expanded through the centuries while preserving its historical core.
The stones of the Old Town Cemetery reveal an expansive variety of designs and materials. An impressive amount of portrait stones neighbor finely inscribed early geometric willows, figural setting suns, and nineteenth-century urns that almost resemble Islamic lamps. Unusually ornate floreate, symmetric patterns occupy a good percentage of lunettes. Particularly of note are the hybrid cherub-skulls that seem to be from the same workshop as the suns. One rather crude but endearing example of this motif can be found amidst a grove of trees , possibly an apprentice’s attempt at his master’s original design.
Some of the slate stones appear to have been partially conserved, resulting in an unusual green tint on the front surface. This usually only occurs when lichen spreads over slate, but even then it more commonly forms distinct clumps rather than a film. The tint could also be a result of chemical erosion, and appears to have been on the stones for some time. Similarly mysterious are a few markers of a distinctly darker slate than their peers. While most surviving gravestones are made from green slate, these resemble contemporary Grayson slate, quarried today in Virginia. Boston’s slate quarries were once a bountiful resource, but without chemical analysis it’s tricky to determine the dark slate’s origin.
No seventeenth-century headstones have survived, and the oldest belongs to Sarah Pratt (d. 1724), the sole decoration of which is the inscription of her name, her husband Josiah’s name, and her death date. Their son, Josiah’s second wife, and the children of that union are laid to rest nearby. Josiah is credited with co-owning Mansfield’s first grist mill, which was operational from 1719 to 1824, mainly so he and his partner could warrant owning the twelve acres granted to grist mill owners at that time. All around are buildings and plaques commemorating the town’s self-efficiency, including an industrial boom in the twentieth century that has since declined. Empty as the Common is during pandemic times, one hopes that when the weather warms, the few fallen and broken stones will receive some attention.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Z.G. Burnett is a writer and editor with a background in early American history and material culture. She has been published by The Attic on Eighth, Ivy-Style, and The Vintage Woman Magazine. Combining her passion for the paranormal and everything pink, Z.G. is currently working on her first personal style guide.
If you are a representative of a cemetery or a cemetery historian and would like to see your cemetery featured in this blog please email Corinne Elicone at celicone@mountauburn.org