Navigating Oak Grove – Friends of Oak Grove Cemetery

Oak Grove Facebook Quiz Tonight!

September 15, 2011 ShelleyLeave a comment

Need more excitement in your life? Nothing good on T.V.?

Tune in tonight,( September 15th) at 10 p.m. for the first ever (but not the last) So you think you know Oak Grove Cemetery? Jeopardy-style online quiz.

Questions and photo identifications will be posted in rapid fire, each going up after the previous one has been correctly answered. There will be one winner, with difficult brainbusters in case of a tie. Join us at Friends of Oak Grove Fall River tonight. A prize will be awarded to the winner- and the competition will be fierce! How well do YOU know Oak Grove?

1890 Photos

August 24, 2011August 24, 2011 ShelleyLeave a comment

The following two photographs appeared in Century magazine, in an article which described Oak Grove Cemetery as a memorial park setting and mentioned several famous people buried here. The first is of the arch as it appeared in 1890, showing the ivy. The second is the Hargrave crypt, which is built into a ridge, also dated 1890. The Hargrave family were operators of a large soap manufacturing business in the city.

A trade card and 1883 image of the Hargrave Soap Manufacturing Co.

The Ladies’ Comfort Station

February 22, 2008February 22, 2008 ShelleyLeave a comment

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

A Map of Oak Grove

January 15, 2008August 29, 2014 Shelley2 Comments

click on thumbnail for full-sized map

Josiah Brown, a city architect and surveyor laid out the winding avenues and paths named for shrubs and trees. Over time, weather, vandals, and age have taken a toll on path markers. The students at Diman Vocational have begun a project to replace avenue signs with handsome metal signage on tall poles.