Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mount Auburn Cemetery
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Mount Auburn Cemetery in June 2005
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Interactive map showing the location for Mount Auburn Cemetery
Location	580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Coordinates	42°22′16″N 71°08′41″W / 42.37111°N 71.14472°W / 42.37111; -71.14472
Built	1831
Architect	Alexander Wadsworth and Jacob Bigelow
Architectural style	Exotic Revival, Other, Gothic Revival
NRHP reference No.	75000254[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 21, 1975
Designated NHLD	May 27, 2003

Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark.

Dedicated in 1831 and set with classical monuments in a rolling landscaped terrain,^[2] it marked a distinct break with Colonial-era burying grounds and church-affiliated graveyards. The appearance of this type of landscape coincides with the rising popularity of the term "cemetery," derived from the Greek for "a sleeping place," instead of graveyard. This language and outlook eclipsed the previous harsh view of death and the afterlife embodied by old graveyards and church burial plots.^[3]

The 174-acre (70 ha) cemetery is important both for its historical aspects and for its role as an arboretum. It is Watertown's largest contiguous open space and extends into Cambridge to the east, adjacent to the Cambridge City Cemetery and Sand Banks Cemetery. It was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 2003 for its pioneering role in 19th-century cemetery development.^[4]