230 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
ELIMINATING UNSIGHTLY OBJECTS IN CEMETERIES 
Address before the Minneapolis Convention of the Association of American Cemetery Super- 
intendents, by Carl E. Kern, Assistant Superintendent, Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, O. 
Those of us who are actively engaged in 
developing and maintaining cemeteries at the 
present time are constantly striving to meet 
the esthetic taste of the public interested in 
our institutions. We are advancing rapid- 
ly and the teachings and doctrines of many 
of our public-spirited men and civic or- 
ganizations which lead us on to live our 
lives under more beautiful conditions and 
attractive surroundings, have fallen upon a 
receptive public mind, and the result 
among many other notable achievements 
along these lines is our modern landscape 
or park-like cemetery. Almost with shame 
we look back to the days of our fore- 
fathers, when the cemetery was consid- 
ered the most forlorn, neglected and 
shunned spot on earth in our communities, 
a place fit for nothing else than the “gob- 
lins” to roam about, the lonely owl to 
screech in, or the serpent to hiss among 
fallen tombstones, dry leaves and brush. 
It is almost impossible for us at this pres- 
ent day to form a picture of this kind in 
our minds, but in the course of time, with 
the ever-restless force of progress urging 
on, the day of light was not even to be 
denied our old cemeteries of former times. 
But between darkness and light there is 
the period of dawn, and during that very 
period of time many of our great ceme- 
teries of today had their inception in the 
minds of our great men and pioneers in 
cemetery making. I wish to refer to Lau- 
rel Hill, near Philadelphia ; Spring Grove, 
near Cincinnati ; Mount Auburn, near Bos- 
ton ; Greenwood, at New York, and many 
others that followed. The basic principles 
of landscape gardening incorporated in 
these earlier modern cemeteries are still 
exemplary in every respect and are the 
greatest memorials in themselves to the 
courage and conviction of these men who 
dared to overthrow the old order of things 
relative to cemeteries in general. 
This thought brings us back to the pe- 
riod when the taste of the owners of lots 
and graves was permitted to run along al- 
most unrestricted lines. As our cemeteries 
grew in the course of time, the result and 
general appearance of our sections was a 
picture of chaotic conditions, enough to 
shock and offend the eye of any casual vis- 
itor. Such outgrowth as this even threat- 
ened to thwart the noble efforts of our 
landscape gardeners of those days to elevate 
the cemetery above the ordinary graveyard 
variety. 
We have now arrived at the very point 
upon which I have been asked by your hon- 
orable president to dwell upon the sub- 
ject, “Best Methods of Eliminating Un- 
sightly Objects in Cemeteries Without Of- 
fense to Lot Owners.” We may succeed 
in eliminating unsightly objects and re- 
move them, but it is doubtful if it can be 
done at all times without causing the anger 
and wrath of some obstinate lot owner to 
fall upon our heads, no matter how bene- 
ficial the improvement may be for the gen- 
eral good. As 1 have been informed, 
there are many cemeteries, started years 
ago, which need modern improvements, 
and the idea of a general clean-up and 
paint-up campaign which pervades so 
many of our cities in the spring of recent 
years could certainly also be extended to 
the sleeping places of the dead. Inasmuch 
as the cleaning up of a cemetery is a far 
more complicated affair than the cleaning 
up of our streets and back yards, it is but 
natural to think that such operations 
should be entirely in the hands of the su- 
perintendent and his cemetery employees. 
But first of all let us pave our way to 
reach the desired goal, lest we should meet 
with offense, to acquaint and educate the 
public to the ideas and principles of well 
cared for cemeteries. “Seeing is believ- 
ing” ; for instance, the superintendent 
should be able to secure the consent of a 
majority of lot owners of a smaller sec- 
tion, part of the expenses to be borne by 
them according to conditions to be rem- 
edied, but the larger portion of expenses 
would have to be met by the cemetery in 
most cases. Any steps taken to abolish 
and remove fences of the various kinds, 
copings, dilapidated hedges bounding lots, 
high markers, or to prohibit markers of 
the twin or triplet variety, or the remnants 
of old rusty settees, flower vases, both cast 
iron and terra cotta, and least of all the 
placing upon graves and lots of frames, 
either wood or iron, toys, shells or other 
monstrosities of all kinds which should 
have no place in a cemetery — any move 
made by cemetery officials in this direction 
can have no other than beneficial results 
in every respect. In carrying on such work 
the superintendent should always have full 
and unanimous support of the trustees or 
the Board of Directors, and, in order to 
still further increase his efficiency and 
lighten his task before him, a practical set 
of rules should be adopted covering the 
very points of question. 
I wish but to remind you of the splendid 
set of rules which was recommended at a 
meeting by this association held at Boston 
in 1890, and which should be the guiding 
star for all cemeteries, both large and 
small, throughout the country. With your 
permission I will recite the most important 
ones bearing upon this subject: 
Rule 2 : The trustees desire to leave the 
improvement of lots as far as possible to 
the taste of the owners, but in justice to 
all, they reserve the right given them by 
law, to exclude or remove from any lot 
any headstone, monument or other struc- 
ture, tree, plant or other object whatso- 
ever, which may conflict with the regula- 
tions or which they shall consider in- 
jurious to the general appearance of the 
grounds, and particularly of adjoining lots. 
Rule 3 : Lot owners may have planting 
or other work done on their lots at their 
expense, upon application to the superin- 
tendent. No workmen other than em- 
ployees of the cemetery will be admitted to 
the cemetery except for the purpose of set- 
ting work. 
Rule 4: No iron or wire work, and no 
seats or vases will be allowed on lots, ex- 
cepting by permission of the trustees, and 
when any article made of iron begins to 
rust the same shall be removed from the 
cemetery. 
Rule 5 : The trustees desire to encourage 
the planting of trees and shrubbery, but in 
order to protect the rights of all and secure 
the best general results, they require that 
such planting shall be done only in accord- 
ance with the directions of the superin- 
tendent of the cemetery. 
Rule 6: No coping nor any kind of en- 
closure will be permitted. The boundaries 
of lots will be marked by corner stones, 
which will be set by the cemetery at the 
expense of the lot owner, with the centers 
upon the lines bounding the lot. Corner 
stones must not project above the ground 
and must not be altered or removed. 
Rule 7 : No lots shall be filled above the 
established grade. 
Rule 10: Mounds over graves should 
be kept low, not exceeding four inches in 
height, and stone or other enclosures 
around graves will not be allowed. 
Regulations of this kind are the children 
of necessity, a fact which was recognized 
by this association many years ago and car- 
ried into effect by all of the leading ceme- 
teries. To cure an evil we must apply a 
specific, and no one is better qualified to 
propose and enforce such rules than the 
wide-awake superintendent, the man be- 
hind the gun. It would be most unwise to 
establish a uniform set of rules for all 
cemeteries, inasmuch as the customs and 
sentiment of the public vary a great deal 
in the different parts of the country with 
respect to cemetery matters. Cemeteries, 
as a rule, are in the business to stay, and 
it certainly should not be a difficult matter 
for any superintendent to prove to his 
Board of Directors or trustees, in passing 
similar regulations just referred to, that 
they soon become a matter of importance, 
even of great economic value. In banish- 
ing and removing structures and materials 
which are inconsistent with the proper 
keeping of the grounds of a cemetery, it is 
but logical to assume that we thereby cut 
down a considerable amount of expense for 
maintenance, which item should interest 
any of us. Any expenditures a cemetery 
