PARK AND CEMETERY 
229 - 
BEAUTIFYING THE CEMETERY, 
At least one opportunity for the development of 
good out-of-door art exists in each town and In 
many country communities. It is found in the im- 
provement of the frequently neglected and almost 
invariably badly planned local cemetery. 
Nearlv all burial grounds are cared for in spots 
by lot owners, but to secure an attractive appear- 
ance throughout the grounds calls for well-directed 
organized effort. No better or more effective work- 
lies waiting for improvement societies to tackle, 
and it is right at hand. 
If such work is worth doing, it is 
certainly worth doing in the best pos- 
sible way. It must, therefore, be done 
in accordance with a carefully consid- 
ered, definite and detailed plan. The 
best way to secure such a design is to 
engage a landscape gardener who is 
versed in cemetery work. All new 
cemeteries in progressive communities 
are in these days designed on modern 
lines. The American rural cemetery 
is acknowledged to be the ideal. It is 
a burial park. If quiet landscape 
beauty is appropriate anywhere, it is 
in the cemetery, and this fact is now 
generally admitted. 
But it is one thing to decide to 
retain or to create this desirable 
characteristic in a burial ground ami 
another to eliminate or to prevent inappropriate 
and inharmonious features that have come to be 
considered the proper thing in this connection. 
However, once a community is impressed with the 
practical and artistic advantages of the so-called 
lawn plan, the rest is comparatively easy. 
This plan consists in fitting the chosen site to 
cemetery purposes without spoiling or altering its 
natural landscape effects. This result is brought 
about in as many ways as there are pieces of 
ground to be transformed into burial plots. No 
cemetery plan is good unless the finished grounds 
retain the original landscape characteristics of the 
chosen tract. This does not mean that there are 
to be no alterations. The topography may be altered 
throughout; trees may be removed (though this 
must be done with absolute knowledge or harm 
may ensue that only the years of a lifetime can re- 
pair) ; shrubbery may be cut away in some places 
and set out in others ; and waterways may lie 
altered or created ; still, when all is said and done, 
the character of the landscape will retain its original 
spirit — that is, if the work has been in the 'hands of 
an artist. At the same time, the ground will have 
been perfectly adapted to its intended purpose. 
Among the necessities in every cemetery are a 
good drainage system ; an adequate water system ; 
well-placed driveways (which will largely de- 
cide the size, shape and number of sections) : 
level graves (no mounds are found in up-to- 
date grounds) ; low markers at the head of 
graves; no foot stones and no visible corner 
stones — the latter being set flush with the ground; 
no fences, copings, hedges or other visible bound- 
aries to lots — these must merge indistinguishably 
OFFICE, CHAPEE AND ENTRANCE, CITY CEMETERY, LEXINGTON, KY. 
into each other if the open, lawn-like effect is to 
be preserved ; unsold spaces for necessary planting 
must be retained throughout the enclosure ; sharp 
slopes, boggy ground and other land unsuitable for 
burial purposes should be occupied by planting or 
be included in the waterways ; hitching posts musi 
be inconspicuous — gas-pipe posts with a ring at the 
top are used in some of the best cemeteries, notably 
in Graceland, Chicago, and stones with rings at- 
tached are also good. An irregular belt of planting 
should inclose the entire space to serve the double 
purpose of shielding the grounds from public view 
and furnishing the seclusion that cemetery visitors 
find especially grateful. If any breaks occur in 
such boundary plantations, they should open up 
distant views, which are better obtained from the 
higher parts of the grounds where the view is over 
rather than through the planting. Conditions must. 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY. 
