New England Oddities

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Founded in 1831, Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts is considered to be America’s first garden-style cemetery, with plots and stones arranged amongst landscaped hills, rather than in the rigid lines found in churchyards of prior periods. The garden style cemetery emphasizes peaceful rest, rather than sorrow, and represented society’s changing attitudes toward death and the afterlife.

This is one of the largest and most elaborate cemeteries we have had the chance to visit, and those of you who may have visited this site before know that we’ve seen many!  One could walk for days and not see everything there is to see, as the cemetery covers around 175 acres and contains over 10 miles of roads.  In addition to beautiful monuments and chapels, Mt. Auburn is also famous for it’s 700 varieties of trees and numerous species of birds.

Photography by Katie Harper:

 

Photography by Chris Kwarciany:

 

Investigation at Hillside Cemetery

Recently we received an invitation to investigate Hillside cemetery in Cheshire, Connecticut; a ride along, if you will, with the Greater Hartford Paranormal Society. Now I know you’re probably thinking writing about cemeteries is Katie’s milieu, and you would be correct. But this investigation was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. Besides, I can’t let her have all of the fun, now can I?

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Old Burying Point

The last installment of Taphopiliacs Anonymous focused on Salem Center Burying Ground in Salem, New Hampshire, but this week we move our sights to a different Salem: Salem, Massachusetts.

Though the two cities are not all that far away, they are worlds apart. To readers here, Salem Massachusetts no doubt needs no introduction. The site of the infamous witch trials in the late 1600s has, since the 1970s, become something of an east-coast holy land for new-agers and kitchen witches, and a required destination for spiritual spectators and curiosity-seekers. Boasting rows of vendors and museums dedicated to the craft, witch decals on city vehicles, practitioners licensed by local government and even an official witch, Salem is a city like no other.

The Old Burying Point, located within an easy walk of many Salem attractions, is likewise a cemetery like no other.

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Salem Center Burying Ground

If you are a frequent reader of this site, or have even just glanced at it once or twice, you may have stumbled upon the notion that I rather like cemeteries. I guess I’m what you would call a Taphophile: one who enjoys spending time in cemeteries researching, photographing, taking rubbings or even just walking through, looking around. I’ve been fascinated with old burial grounds and graveyards since I was a child – well before I knew there was a word for my “condition.” There is, to me, a special brand of dark beauty that can be found in cemeteries in general and New England cemeteries in particular.

Because I know I’m not alone – I’m sure our mutual affinity led many of you to click your way here – I am beginning a new series on New England Oddities called Taphophiliacs Anonymous. In this series, I will spotlight cemeteries around the region and beyond, one by one, in words and pictures.

To start the series off on the right foot, I have chosen one of my favorite locations so far: Salem Center Burying Ground in Salem, New Hampshire.

The area that would later become the town of Salem was first settled in 1652.  Originally the North Parish of Methuen, Massachusetts, Salem became part of New Hampshire when the boundaries between the states were re-drawn in 1741.  The town – named after that infamous locale in Massachusetts – was finally incorporated in 1750.

Continue reading Salem Center Burying Ground…