Talk:Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries

aka Mt. Lebanon Cemetery
Most maps over the last hundred years seem to call this whole cemetery area Mt. Lebanon Cemetery. What is the explanation? This information should be added to the article, and maybe the title should be changed, or there should be appropriate re-directs.-71.174.187.78 (talk) 18:14, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

location glitch
The GeoHack toolserver location function does not work right. A good coordinate for this cemetery article is N 42.293 W 71.177   =    N 42 17' 33" W 71 10' 36" But if you put in the DMS form, it comes out in slightly the wrong place. And if you put in the decimal degrees form, it comes out in the right place with the wrong zoom factor. One way around this is to put in this weird form: coord|42.293|0|0|N|71.177|0|0|W|region:US|display=title Is there some other way to get this to work right? -71.174.187.78 (talk) 23:20, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

parcel history
The history of this parcel can be traced at Suffolk County Atlas

1874: Martin Luther Orphan's Home much larger parcel

1896: Lutheran Evangelical Church 2,305,849 (53 acres) 1905: unchanged

Plate 31 of the 1914 Suffolk County Atlas of West Roxbury shows this parcel off Baker St

owned by Sherman L. Whipple 2,178,000 sq ft (50 acres)

"Sherman L. Whipple, one of the most eminent attorneys of the New England bar,"

"Whipple, Sears & Ogden are rated as a highly reputable law firm. Sherman L. Whipple, the head of the firm, is supposed to be one of the most eminent attorneys in Boston."

Various records and maps refer to the dead-end road through this cemetery as "Cemetery Road" or perhaps "Mount Lebanon Cemetery Road". The 1935-1949 land records show many cemetery parcel transfers along "Cemetery Road". -71.174.187.78 (talk) 15:56, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Historic Maps
Brook Farm Cemetery area From Suffolk County Atlas

1874 VOL.5.PLATE:P.

1896 PLATE 29 WARD 23

1905 PLATE 29 WARD 23

1914 PLATE 31 WARD 23 -96.233.18.213 (talk) 22:20, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Site visit, October 2010
October 26, 2010

The entrance on Baker St has a bus stop, MBTA Bus Route 52. There is an office building by the entrance with the address 776. The main entrance sign is titled
 * BAKER STREET MEMORIAL PARK.

39 individual cemeteries are listed, numbered 1-45. Hours 8am - dusk, closed Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

The access road that wends through the cemetery has a sign at the entrance:
 * THIS ROAD WAS NAMED AND DEDICATED
 * TO THE MEMORY OF GABRIEL BACKER
 * JUNE 8, 1958

Some of the cemeteries were established as early as 1925 and 1928.

There is a sign reading:
 * Rev. John Eliot's Pulpit Rock

marking a large historic outcropping within a set-aside oval of woods.

One of the cemetery parcels is hilly and has no graves, but seems to be used for equipment and stockpiling fill.

There is a gravestone marking the "life" of a synagogue no longer active.

The pond in the area of the entrance shown on 1914 and previous maps has been filled in. Much of this group of cemeteries has been filled and leveled. Where did the fill come from? Were any high points lowered?

There were three wild turkeys wandering the grounds.

There were a number of active staff taking care of the cemetery, people visiting graves, and a funeral in progress.

The entrance to the SE on Baker has a sign:
 * THE GARDENS AT GETHSEMANE
 * 325-0186
 * 670 BAKER STREET

The thin sliver of cemetery to the NW bordering Newton is the St. Vincent section of St Joseph's. The Newton boundary is lined with large chunks of puddingstone.

Baker St continues into Newton and the name changes to Dedham St. Spiers Rd goes off immediately to the left; those houses are on the Newton line abutting the St. Vincent section.

On the right is the Brimmer & May School Athletic Field. The main parcel of Saint Joseph's cemetery is on the West Roxbury side of the Newton line. Most of the area water features seem to have been filled in, but the main brook still flows from the Newton line, eventually crossing Baker and passing Brook Farm. This brook may have once been named after Palmer. Some old maps call it Brook Farm Brook. It seems to now be known as Sawmill Brook, which may have previously been the name for the upstream portion on the Newton side.

The brook wends around a hill topped by a stone chapel:
 * BISHOP JOSEPH F. MAGUIRE CHAPEL 1976

Right before crossing under Baker St, the brook passes under/through a peculiar old low building that spans the brook.

Between the Gethsemane access road and the brook are two modern small one-story buildings, the office and the caretaker's home. In the yard next to the office is the well-preserved functioning remains of a heavy-duty metal playground merry-go-round, apparently from Orphan Home days. Jutting from the steep wooded slope down to the water are substantial remains of a barn foundation in fairly good condition, said to be from Brook Farm days. These may be the only accessible physical remains from that time. Judging from the topography, the main access road from Baker may have come around below the barn at that time. Changes in the watershed downstream have turned the low-lying area around the brook into a wetland.

-96.233.18.213 (talk) 02:40, 28 October 2010 (UTC)