PARK AND CEMETERY. 
217 
BOULDER WORK IN SWAN POINT CEMETERY, 
PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, R. I , has 
become known, far and wide, both from the unique 
features included in its development, as well as the 
beautiful landscape effects it commands. Rough 
and uncouth in its natural beauty as it may have 
rem ained under other treatment for other purposes, 
located as it is where glacial drift is a prominent 
component of its useful area, under the broad and 
c >u \igeous management of Mr. Timothy McCarthy, 
its .fficient superintendent, its embellishment from 
boulder boundary wall, illustrated in the accom- 
panying engraving. This has grown to be a perma- 
nent object of beauty in the cemetery, and as will be 
seen gives a distinguishing feature to Swan Point. 
Along the front and on the wall a profus'on of 
shrubs, creepers and vines have been planted, which 
have already developed into a mass of picturesque 
vegetation, and thus will continue to improve un- 
der efficient care year by year. The opportunities 
that the wall has offered for decorative effects have 
been admirably worked out, nor have the boulders 
been only used as the foundation for vine and 
BOULDER WALL, SWAN POINT CEMETERY, PR( /VIDENCE, R. I. 
a landscape standpoint has been remarkably suc- 
cessful. The scenery is varied, whether one views 
the grounds from the high land, and notes the high 
boulders here and there among the shrubbery, made 
to serve useful purposes in the general effects; or 
p issing to the lower levels gazes around and up- 
ward to the previous standpoint. Turn where one 
will the scenery is ever changing, each succeeding 
view in the panorama attractive and possessing dif- 
fering characteristics to demand attention. 
Viewing all this and noting the nature of the 
grounds it would become apparent that so resource- 
ful a landscape gardener as Mr. McCarthy, would 
soon devise some useful purpose for the lavish sup- 
ply of bou'ders confronting him in his work, and 
so it came about a few years ago that he gained the 
consent of his trustees to the construction of the 
creeper culture, for wherever the faces of the bould- 
ers offer suitable opportunities for inscriptions, these 
opportunities have been carefully conserved b\- the 
superintendent And this idea has also been pre- 
served in other portions of the grounds. 
There is now under construction a noble gateway, 
built of boulders, large and small, in fact many of 
them weigh between twenty and thirty tons. There 
is of course a rudetiesss about such an apparently 
rough and massive structure, but theie is much 
about the general conditions of the locality to im- 
press a harmony, and moreover, before long, these 
rugged lines will be softened by the exquisite vines 
which will run riot from the crevices in which they 
are planted, and the gateway as a permanent addi- 
tion will be in time one of most noted features of 
this beautiful cemetery. 
