PARK AND CEMETERY 
371 
Association of American Cemetery Superintendents. 
Address of the Retiring President, Frank Enrich, Detroit, Mich. 
Ladies, Gentlemen and Friends of the Association of Amer- 
ican Cemetery Superintendents : 
Twelve years ago today we met in this city on the occasion 
of the Fourth Annual Convention. 
Those of the members who were in attendance then and 
are present today, will recall with pleasure the delightful and 
profitable occasion, and will with renewed interest visit the 
cemeteries and parks to view improvements made since then, 
and incidentally make comparisons with conditions at that 
time. 
It has been my privilege and good fortune to be able to 
attend all of the conventions since the inception of our 
organization. I assure you that I feel grateful and consider 
it an honor and a privilege to preside at this, our Sixteenth 
meeting. I bid you all a hearty welcome, and trust you will 
assist and be active in our deliberations and discussions of 
topics offered. 
In looking about for suggestions as to what I ought to 
say on this occasion, I find it is a difficult matter to select 
something that has not already been presented at former 
meetings, by able and practical papers. You very well know 
that we have had the idea expressed that all subjects per- 
taining to cemetery work, their management and care have 
been so thoroughly written about, discussed and reiterated 
under new' headings, that it has become almost impossible to 
present something new. We find those even who will as- 
sert that nothing can be gained or learned by attending these 
meetings, visiting and viewing the workings of cemeteries, 
parks and other public institutions. 
In answer we need only to recall the conditions of ceme- 
teries of a few years ago, and compare them with conditions 
we find at the present time. No argument is needed to con- 
\ince the most skeptical that the largest share of this result 
is due mainly to the efforts of this association. 
It is not my purpose, however, to take up any further 
time in reviewing our past w^ork. I wish rather to urge the 
necessity to continue in our mission; our work is not done; 
we must not be content with our present achievements nor 
cease to educate. 
We must remain pioneers of reform and advancement in 
all and every direction of cemetery work. We mu.st not only 
seek to work along the lines of the present acceptable methods 
of cemetery management in all its phases, but must ever seek 
to discuss wherein progress can be made. We must antici- 
pate and plan methods that w'ill be equally as acceptable to 
future wants of coming generations so far as this is possible. 
Unfortunately it is not so simple and easy to introduce 
reforms on account of being constantly confronted by time 
honored customs to which the general public, through thought- 
lessness, will cling with surprising and — to us — aggravating 
tenacity. 
We find the chief fault in the present progressive ceme- 
teries is in the evil of the misunderstood lawn system. There 
is too much ornamentation of the individual lots, which pre- 
vents comprehensive and imposing lawn treatment. 
The landscape lawn plan aims to form a consistent whole, 
a general scheme of which the principal feature shall be a 
natural or artificial stretch of level or rolling lawn sur- 
rounded by irregularly arranged planting areas for trees and 
shrubbery, these forming backgrounds for burial areas, as 
well as affording shade and seclusion. 
The distinctive feature of the plan is to secure landscape 
effects by placing rigid restrictions upon those who acquire 
the right of burial in the lawns, and that the entire scheme 
must remain under the control of the adopted design, to the 
exclusion of individual decoration. 
To carry out this idea, and to accomplish this result, plans 
must be devised by which the present established and stere- 
otyped method of subdividing burial sections into arbitrarily 
uniformly sized lots which, for convenience sake, are gener- 
ally platted in straight tiers, is set aside as undesirable. It 
will require, in its stead, a treatment by which a series of 
irregular groups or clusters of burial areas are planned to 
occupy the lawns, arranged as to size and capacity to be suita- 
ble for the requirements of the community which they are 
to serve. Separating the burial areas will be spaces in propor- 
tion to complete the design for suitable plantations of trees, 
shrubs and flowers. 
Purchasers of burial areas, under this method, must be 
educated to accept the area selected as a finished and com- 
pleted part of the design, and that no changes can be made, 
or additional planting done, unless it be by the controlling 
authority, as a guarantee to be in harmony with the whole. 
Boundaries of each burial area will be invisibly marked, 
graves not mounded but level, and there will be no markers 
above the sod. A correct system of records will preserve 
the boundaries of areas and the precise location of each 
grave. 
And what is there to be said about monuments, using the 
word in its ordinary acceptance? Having given the subject 
much earnest thought, I have arrived at the conclusion that 
the one thing we ought to do is to find a remedy to prevent 
the useless disfiguring of beautiful scenery and surroundings 
by stone work which is neither characteristic nor artistic. 
When we remember that from time immemorial there has 
been implanted within human beings the desire to mark the 
last resting place of a relative with some memorial, and, more- 
over, that this desire has been carefully used and cultivated 
l)y those engaged in the manufacture of memorials, without 
any counter influence from disinterested persons, we can 
easily understand that this custom has remained deep rooted 
with the general public. It is true, we have witnessed much 
progress and improvement from the old style memorials to 
the monuments of the present time, and we are occasionally 
agreeably surprised with sentiments expressed favoring the 
abandonment of monuments, so much so that we may look 
forward to the time when more radical changes will be ac- 
cepted as a move in the right direction. 
.\lready many cemeteries have a rule prohibiting monuments 
on certain sized lots ; while in others, sections are opened 
where no monuments, and only markers level with the lawn, 
are permitted. 
I am fully aware that the time has not yet arrived when a 
total abandonment of monuments can be advocated, desirable 
as it may be, but I do think that more stringent and compul- 
sory measures might be adopted to educate the public to sub- 
ordinate personal desire and individual taste to dictation and 
advice of cemetery managers, who, because of years of expe- 
rience and special study, are surely best qualified to decide 
along what lines improved methods will attain the desired 
results. It will therefore remain for cemetery managements 
in formulating plans to consider well and thoroughly to what 
e.xtent monuments may be admitted on burial areas as a 
whole, which individual one may or may not have a monu- 
ment, and possibly also determine and prescribe what design, 
material or style would be harmonious and not in conflict 
with the surroundings. 
