Brookdale Cemetery

Brookdale Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts.[1][2] More than 28,000 people are buried there.[2] Mother Brook runs behind it.[3][4]

Brookdale Cemetery
The pond and fountain at the entrance to Brookdale Cemetery
Details
Established1880
Location
Dedham, Massachusetts
Coordinates42.250283°N 71.165558°W / 42.250283; -71.165558
TypePublic
Owned byTown of Dedham
No. of graves28,000+
WebsiteBrookdale Cemetery Viewer
Find a GraveBrookdale Cemetery
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History

For nearly 250 years after it was established, Old Village Cemetery was the only cemetery in Dedham.[5] As immigrant workers moved to Dedham to take jobs in the mills along Mother Brook, it became clear that another cemetery would be needed.[6]

Seeing a need for greater space, the Annual Town Meeting of 1876 established a committee to look into establishing a new cemetery.[7] The committee, composed of the selectmen and Eratus Worthington, Eliphalet Stone, Royal O. Storrs, Winslow Warren, Edwin Whiting, and Alfred Hewins, was charged with determining how large the cemetery should be, locating land for it, and all other matters.[7] Town Meeting accepted the committee's recommendation on October 20, 1877 and appropriated $8,150 to purchase 39 acres from Thomas Barrows[lower-alpha 1] and Thomas Motley with additional land from Walter E. White[12] for a total of 40 acres.[13] Several of those involved in the creation of the cemetery were the agents and superintendents of the mills along Mother Brook.[6]

More than 10 acres of underbrush and trees were cleared in 1877 and more than a mile of roads were built.[14] A plan of lots was laid out with roads named for trees, and paths named for shrubs or flowers.[14] Lots were laid out by Stone to be 15' by 20' and the first was sold in June 1878.[13] The property was surrounded by 700' of picket fence and a stone wall.[13] Three commissioners, appointed by the Selectmen, served three year terms and managed the cemetery.[13] The garden cemetery was intended to be a place of rest and recreation for the entire town.[6]

There were two points of entry, from East Street and Brookdale Avenue,[13] with the main entrance leading to Ash Avenue.[14] The gateways were constructed of Quincy granite and the gates themselves of Michigan pine.[13] Fences and hedges were not included a pond was dug.[14][13] A receiving tomb was designed by Frederick R. Storrs[14] inside of a heart shaped recess in a hill just inside the cemetery for those who died during the winter.[13] The Gate Lodge Chapel, built in 1903, was designed by Henry Bailey Alden.[15]

In March 1880, Town Meeting set aside a portion of the cemetery, just a block away from St. Mary's Church, for Catholics to be buried.[16][17] The special section was bound by East Street and White's remaining land on the west and Spruce and Maple Avenues on the south and east.[14] Beginning in 1889, 10% of all proceeds from lot sales were placed in the Perpetual Care Fund.[14]

At the base of the hill with the Civil War monument is an oblong piece of granite stating simply, "Hermit."[13][18] It marks the grave of James Gately, the Hermit of Hyde Park.[13][18] In 2014, the Town was close to finishing an expansion providing more than 100 grave sites of the cemetery.[2] Without the expansion, it would have been full in another two years.[2]

Veterans
Detail of the entrance to Veterans Hill

After the Civil War, Eliphalet Stone donated a choice plot of land upon a hill and a monument to the sacrifice of Union soldiers to the local Grand Army of the Republic chapter.[10][15][19][20] On the hill, which was 200' in cercumfrence,[13] was a monument including four cannons used in the war that were presumably confiscated from Confederate troops.[15] The monument itself is a granite pedestal with the words "Repose," "Mespha," and "Gilead."[13]

Using funds from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Selectmen hired 50 men to work three days a week during the summer months beginning in 1934.[15] The men cut down the hill bounded by Catalpa Walk, Cedar Avenue, and Hemlock Avenue, removed all necessary trees, removed large stones, and graded the land.[15] At the request of the local chapters of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Selectmen designated a hill on the other side of Catapla Walk to bury veterans of the First World War.[15] The work to prepare this land was also done by men employed through an ERA grant.[15] A spot was prepared to place a monument at a later date.[15]

On the grounds are memorials to veterans of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Fire Department, and veteran John "Roscoe" Maloney, longtime superintendent of cemeteries in Dedham.[20] There are also monuments to all veterans who served in time of war, to those who served in the Gulf War, and to members of the police and public works departments.

Notable people buried
The gravestone of Fr. Charles A. Finn

Notes
  1. Stone was married to Elizabeth Barrows[8][9][10] and was a major landowner on nearby High Street.[11]

References
  1. Smith 1936, p. 144.
  2. Seltz, Johanna (August 28, 2014). "South suburbs running out of cemetery space". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
  3. Worthington 1900, p. 2.
  4. Hanson 1976, p. 27.
  5. Smith 1936, p. 146.
  6. "Phase One of Mother Brook Corridor Study completed". The Dedham Times. 28 (8). February 21, 2020. p. 10.
  7. Smith 1936, p. 147.
  8. Bosworth Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of Edward Bosworth who Arrived in America in the Year 1634; with an Appendix Containing Other Lines of American Bosworths. 1936. p. 1805.
  9. Hurd 1884, p. 108.
  10. "The Soldiers' Friend Gone". The Boston Globe. February 6, 1886. p. 8. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  11. Dedham Historical Society 2001, p. 89.
  12. Smith 1936, pp. 147-148.
  13. Upham, E.C. (June 25, 1904). "The Cemeteries of Dedham". The Dedham Transcript. p. 1.
  14. Smith 1936, p. 148.
  15. Smith 1936, p. 149.
  16. "History: St. Mary's Church". St. Mary's Church, Dedham, MA. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  17. Sullivan, M.D., James S. (1895). Archdiocese of Boston, St. Mary's Parish, Dedham. A Graphic, Historical, and Pictorial Account of the Catholic Church of New England. Boston and Portland Illustrated Publishing Company. p. 670.
  18. "The Hermit of Hyde Park". The Boston Globe. December 13, 1880. p. 4. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  19. Dedham Historical Society 2001, p. 116.
  20. Cunningham, Timothy (2014). "Veteran's Monuments and Memorials in the Town of Dedham: Three Self-guided Walking Tours around Dedham" (PDF). Troop 1 Dedham, Boy Scouts of America.
  21. "Monsignor Charles A. Finn, the oldest Roman Catholic priest..." UPI. March 8, 1982. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
  22. Lapomarda 1992, p. 173.
  23. "Grave Record 0215N". Town of Dedham. Retrieved September 6, 2019.

Works cited
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