What is a Columbarium?
According to Mount Auburn Cemetery’s Glossary of Terms prepared by the Curator of Historical Collections, Meg L. Winslow, a Columbarium is “a structure, room or space in a mausoleum or other building designed to hold multiple cremated remains in niches.” At Mount Auburn we have two public Columbaria, one in each Chapel, as well as private family Columbaria. (more…)
Vesper Path Developed
The low granite curbed area on the Eastern part of Vesper Path was developed as new interment space in 1994 by Halvorson Co. A road was removed to create memorialization around the corridor. This area is based on principles from the 1993 Master Plan:
“…Proposals had to rely predominately on centralizing the commemorative function with communal monuments in order to accommodate additional burial in the Cemetery’s residual land and at the same time minimize the addition of structure into the landscape.” (more…)
Mount Auburn Biographies published
In 1953 Mount Auburn Biographies by Foster W. Russell was published.
“With the primary purpose of preserving a convenient record of the accomplishments of over five hundred of the more noted persons who have found lasting repose in the cemetery, Mount Auburn has published a book of more than two hundred pages containing brief biographical sketches by Foster W. Russell, an historical review by James G. King, and an article by Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam on “Memories.”” (Mount Auburn Cemetery Annual Report – 1953) (more…)
Cemetery reaches 100,000 interments
In March 2017, Mount Auburn Cemetery reached the 100,000 interment milestone.
In 1993 the Cemetery published a ground-breaking Master Plan to shape how the Cemetery was managed and developed. In it was a startling revelation “If the Cemetery continues to rely primarily on its past practices of developing traditional, in-ground body burial space, it has less than eight years of land left before it ceases to be an active cemetery.” But through creative development of new areas and an increase in the popularity of cremation, Mount Auburn has surpassed that projected date of capacity and continues to have room for new interments. Over the past 5 years the Cemetery averaged 475 burials per year, evenly split between casket burials and cremation burials, and through strategic planning Mount Auburn will be an active Cemetery for many years to come.