Landscapes & Cemeteries
Landscapes and Cemeteries
Historic landscapes are often cultural (manmade) landscapes. They range from vernacular landscapes, such as farms, rural villages, and vestigial road segments to formal landscapes, such as lawns and gardens. Ethnographic landscapes may include natural and cultural resources that particular populations view as heritage resources. Cemeteries are most often historically significant for their landscape attributes. AHS has extensive expertise in documenting and evaluating cultural landscapes, many of which have qualified for National Register or National Historic Landmark designation.
Landscapes
Featured Project
Commonwealth Avenue
Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, Massachusetts, was completed in 1895 as the western continuation of Olmsted's Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Its design was similar, with curving geometry and separation of commercial traffic, private carriages, an electric railway, and pedestrian traffic, all screened with rows of trees. It is an important example of a transportation corridor with a designed landscape that provides efficient, pleasurable travel with various transportation modes separated and screened by rows of trees, while enhancing the topography and landscape. Other than the removal of the median's electric railway in 1930, Commonwealth Avenue remains substantially intact and is recommended as eligible for the National Register.
Other Project Examples
Governor Samuel Huntington Homestead
The 1723 Governor Samuel Huntington Homestead in Scotland, Connecticut, is a National Historic Landmark. It is the birthplace of the first president of the Continental Congress, who later served as Connecticut’s governor.
Forest Park
AHS documented Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1884. Its landscapes, curving roads and paths, and bodies of water represent a significant example of naturalistic urban park design, with gardens that reflect the Victorian period’s interest in exotic ornamental plant species.
Philip Johnson’s Glass House
The iconic Glass House, a National Historic Landmark in New Canaan, Connecticut, is world renowned for its architecture, but the 49-acre property is also a significant designed landscape.
Putnam Memorial State Park
Putnam Memorial State Park (1887) in Redding, Connecticut, was created to preserve the grounds and remains of the 1778/1779 winter encampment of a Continental Army brigade.
Cemeteries
Featured Project
Grove Street Cemetery
This New Haven cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark, as documented by AHS staff. The Grove Street Cemetery, also known as the New Haven City Burial Ground, dates from 1796. A significant work of landscape architecture, it illustrates the evolution of the cemetery as a distinct landscape and represents a milestone in the historical development of the cemetery as a distinct institution.
Other Project Examples
Temple B'nai Brith and Lebanon-Temple Tifereth Israel Cemeteries
Under an on-call contract with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, AHS documented the Temple B’nai Brith Cemetery and the Lebanon-Temple Tifereth Israel Cemetery in Peabody, Massachusetts.
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Center Cemetery
“Old Yard” Burial Ground
As part of a National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Columbia Green Historic District, in Columbia, Connecticut, AHS staff documented an outstanding 18th- and early 19th-century cemetery.
For more information on AHS’s experience and capabilities, visit our expertise page.