242 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
An Attractive Cemetery Entrance Effect 
The very attractive entrance to Bloom- 
ington Cemetery, Bloomington, 111., illus- 
trated here, shows what a fine view can 
be developed by careful attention at mod- 
erate expense. 
quinquefolia, and the planting around the 
building contains, weigelas, viburnums, sy- 
ringas, spiraea and altheas. 
A comparison of an old illustration 
taken several years ago with this one 
which were broken into suitable sizes by 
the cemetery labor at odd times. Portland 
cement was used in laying the boulders, 
which are backed up by bricks laid in 
Louisville cement. The building was 
ENTRANCE TO BLOOMINGTON CEMETERY, BLOOMINGTON, ILL. 
The gate posts are three feet by three 
feet and twelve inches high. The large 
gateway is twelve feet wide and two small 
ones each six feet ; the vines on the lodge 
and gate posts are ampelopsis veitchii and 
shows what a little planting and time for 
its development will do for such situations. 
The building shown is constructed of 
boulders lirought from Chillicothe, 111., 
erected under the supervision of Arthur 
J. Graves, superintendent, and its total cost 
was $1,375, including freight and cemetery 
labor. 
G rozvth of the Modern Cemetery Idea 
Address before the Rotary Club of Philadelphia by 
George M. Painter, Siipt. Westminster Cemetery. 
As Benjamin Franklin once said, 'T need 
only visit a graveyard of a community to 
know the character of the people." 
The history of nations, never heard of by 
people of this day, is being taught us from 
their tombs: and from them we have proof 
how strong a passion of the human heart 
it is to adorn the resting place of the loved 
and lost. Fashions change but the instincts 
of mankind do not; and, as in the past, so 
the men of the present, and the future will 
never fail to cherish that dear spot where 
they lay their dead. 
The first record in the Bible of burial is 
where, eighteen hundred years before the 
dawn of Christian era, Abraham buried 
Sarah, who was 127 years old and, in fact, 
it is the first record in the Bible of the con- 
veyance of real estate. Abraham paid 
Ephron 400 shekels of silver ($250) for 
the cave in which to bury Sarah. 
To trace the history of cemeteries from 
biblical times to the eighteenth century 
would be too long and would probably not 
interest you. I will therefore confine my- 
self to a brief account of cemeteries from 
the early settlement of the United States to 
the present time. In early days the settlers 
buried their dead in private cemeteries, 
which were located on their farms or 
plantations. The first record we have of 
any cemetery in Philadelphia was Old 
Swedes Church on Swanson Street. This 
was followed by a number of others, such 
as Christ Church Burial Grounds, at Fifth 
and Arch Streets, and Friends’ Meeting 
House, at Seventeenth and Race Streets, 
and others. Up to 1834 the cemeteries were 
either private or those connected with 
churches. In that year, Mt. Auburn, in 
Cambridge, Mass., the oldest suburban 
cemetery in the United States, was dedi- 
cated : and the following year a tract of 
land on the east bank of the Schuylkill 
River, near the Falls of Schuylkill, was 
purchased by John J. Smith, Nathan Dunn 
and others, and is now known as Laurel 
Hill Cemetery. History tells us that Phila- 
