Hurricane Sandy: Damage Update 

   

We are grateful to the support of our many friends and donors and to the dedication of our staff - the combined efforts of which no doubt strengthen our ongoing ability to provide a high level of care and maintenance to this historic landscape.  

At this time Mount Auburn estimates the loss of approximately 15 trees... read more

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Friends of Mount Auburn Book Club 

   

Each month, Mount Auburn Book Club meets to discuss a selected work related to one of Mount Auburn's many facets. Selections range from books on history, natural history, horticulture, art, architecture, preservation, and wildlife to books written by or about those now buried and commemorated here. 

On Thursday, November 8th at 10AM we will discuss Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (2009), the book takes place largely in Highgate Cemetery in London, a garden cemetery.  Meet at Story Chapel. 

 

Additional Friends of Mount Auburn Events 

   

View our November calendar of programs and tours online.  More than 200,000 visitors come to Mount Auburn each year to visit the graves of those buried here, participate in our programs, explore our many facets, and commune with nature.  Come discover for yourself what makes Mount Auburn a national treasure! 

In 2012 Watertown Community Gardens opened a new garden on Grove Street on a parcel of land loaned by Mount Auburn Cemetery. This is the second community garden in Watertown and has been funded by community grants and in-kind contributions from the Cemetery...read more

 

Horticultural Highlight: Scarlet Oak, Quercus coccinea

 

This month we sing the praises of our Scarlet Oak, Quercus coccinea, which often will claim the autumnal stage, with bright, red, fall foliage from late-October, well into November.  

Oaks have a long cultural association, factual and mythological, with humankind, often symbolic of strength and endurance.  Many Greeks and Romans believed that oak was the first tree that grew upon the earth, and was the tree of Zeus, and/or Jupiter, their respective king of gods. In Norse mythology, the oak was associated with Thor, the god of thunder. In ancient Palestine, as well as today, there were, and are, native oaks, which led to Biblical references to this tree. In 2004, the United States declared the oak to be our national tree, joining at least a dozen other countries, which have also... read more

The Robin is perhaps the most familiar bird in North America; it occurs throughout most of the continent with the exception of northern Alaska and the treeless tundra north of Hudson Bay. I bet if you asked every person to name a bird, the Robin would be named most often. 

In the spring we look forward to seeing and hearing the first returning Robin in our yards... read more

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Early maps of Mount Auburn show a large pond in the northeast corner of the Cemetery. The area, then labeled Garden Pond, covered much of what is now Ash Avenue and what is now the Administration Office & Story Chapel.  In 1862 the Trustees voted to turn Garden Pond into a lake, and in 1864 it was renamed Halcyon Lake... read more

 

Person of the Month: Charles Eliot 

 

Landscape Architect Charles Eliot (1859-1897) helped to create The Trustees of Public Reservations in 1891. With the support of the Massachusetts legislature, he created a privately-funded tax-exempt association to protect natural and historical resources in Massachusetts. Known today as The Trustees of Reservations... read more