Landscape Information
The Olmsted firm鈥檚 professional involvement with the original sixty-five acres to create this cemetery began in 1907 and continued for the next 60 years under a succession of partners鈥擩ames Dawson, Percival Gallagher, Edward Whiting, and finally Joseph Hudak. The cemetery was to serve both the prominent owners and the workers in this factory community and was intended to be developed in sections as the need arose.
Gallagher鈥檚 initial assessment of the property praised its natural scenic values atop a wooded hill, with good vistas over neighboring land. He advised that clearing and grading be guided by a 鈥渄iscriminating eye鈥 to preserve and protect the land鈥檚 distinguishing characteristics鈥攖hat monuments be designed with dignified proportions and tasteful details to avoid monotony and over-ornamentation, with plantings intermingled among them, and that rock outcroppings be reserved for scenic purposes.
Surrounded by straight boundary roads, many laid out by the firm, the cemetery鈥檚 main drive entered at the northwest corner through a stone gate, leading to a small English Gothic chapel designed in 1913 by Max Westhoff for the Alvord family. Within the cemetery, drives and paths curved gracefully around knolls and through dells, defining varied areas for gravesites, from large family plots to smaller individual lots.
