Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

“ [234] the curious stranger; but it is to be feared that he as often leaves it with feelings of regret at its desolate appearance.” It should be added, that this “desolate appearance” has been almost entirely removed within the last thirty years, and, though not profusely ornamented, an air of quiet neatness now marks the spot.

This ground, however, was of such limited dimensions, that in the course of nearly two hundred years the mouldering remains of some must have been disturbed, to give place to others. The increasing population of the two new villages in the easterly part of the town made the necessity urgent for additional room. Accordingly, at a Town-meeting, May 27, 1811, a committee was appointed “to contract for a piece of land in the most eligible situation, for a new burial-ground in Cambridgeport.” The Committee reported, August 5, that they had selected a spot, and they were empowered to purchase it. On the first day of January, 1812, Jonathan L. and Benjamin Austin, for $791.67, conveyed to the town two acres one quarter and twenty rods of land, bounded north by Broadway and east by Norfolk Street, with a right of way to Harvard Street by a passage forty feet wide. For more than half a century this ground was used as a public burying-place, chiefly by the inhabitants of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge. Meantime the beautiful cemetery at Mount Auburn was consecrated by solemn religious services, Sept. 24, 1831, and the less extensive but scarcely less beautiful and attractive Cambridge Cemetery was in like manner consecrated, Nov. 1, 1854. In one or the other of these cemeteries many of the inhabitants purchased lots, and reverently removed to a more quiet and secluded resting place the remains of their deceased friends. The ground, being comparatively disused for new burials, and divested of many treasures formerly deposited therein, gradually assumed a desolate and forlorn appearance, until a general desire was expressed to discontinue entirely its former use and to convert it into a public park. Application was accordingly made to the General Court for permission to effect the desired change; and on the 29th of April, 1865, it was “Resolved, that the city council of the city of Cambridge is hereby authorized, at the expense of said city, to remove the remains of the dead from the burial ground between Broadway and Harvard Street in Ward Number Two, in said Cambridge, to the Cambridge Cemetery, or such other burial place in the vicinity of Cambridge as the relatives and friends of the deceased may designate and provide. . . . . Said ground shall be surrounded by ”