It’s hard to know exactly the date of this photograph. The view is in front of the office building. Oxen were frequently used to haul the granite up to the cemetery on sledges. The arch was erected in 1873. To see the image at full size, click on the photo above. (photo courtesy of Oak Grove Cemetery).
Category: Cemetery Structures
Oak Grove in Winter
| (Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep sung by Ben Crawley, with Boys Choir Libera, text below) |
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| Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints in snow, I am the sunlight and ripened grain. I am the gentle Autumn rain.Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. When you awake in the morning hush, I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. |
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The Ladies’ Comfort Station
For many years, the small, tiled-roof building directly opposite to the office inside the main gate was used as a lavatory and lounge for the lady visitors to the cemetery, and a convenience during funerals for attendees. Currently it is a break room for cemetery staff. It once had the dubious distinction of being the space where the grisly autopsies of Abby and Andrew Borden took place under the eye of medical examiner, Dr. Dolan, city doctor J.H. Leary, Clerk of autopsy, D.E. Cone, and Dr. F.W. Draper of Boston who was called in by Attorney General Albert Pillsbury.
The stained glass lancet windows have been broken and are currently boarded up, but the original deep wainscotting, moldings, and lavatory tiles with a Greek key pattern are still intact.
Click on thumbnails for enlargements of wainscotting and tile
Holding Tombs
Long before the backhoe, the six-foot deep hole for the coffin had to be dug by hand with pickaxe and shovel. In the nineteenth century, during the iron cold winters in New England, sometimes it was necessary to store the coffin until the January thaw or Spring when the frost was out of the ground. There are several of these Egyptian Revival style holding tombs which were built into hills or mounds, each containing shelving on either side of the interior to hold 6-8 coffins. Today this particular tomb houses lawn mowing equipment. This holding tomb, which is at the west side of the cemetery near the main entrance, housed the two coffins of Abby and Andrew Borden for a week while city medical examiner, Dr. Dolan, arranged for a complete autopsy on the bodies to be held at Oak Grove in the Ladies Comfort Station. It was there that the two skulls were removed and held for trial evidence on August 11, 1892.
Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery 