building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

The search for an ancient landscape for the dead, as described by Virgil and other
classical authors, became an imaginary landscape, which recalled the picturesque
garden and the landscapes created by European and American artists.
Following the success of Mount Auburn, numerous other rural cemeteries
developed, such as Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia (1836) [Figure 103‐104],
Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York (1838), Greenwood Cemetery,
Brooklyn (1838) [Figure 101], Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland (1838),
Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh (1844), and Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New
York (1844). In 1849 the cemetery of Bellefontaine was opened in St. Louis, 222 the
first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi [Figure 102]. The 138 acres were
designed by Almerin Hotchkiss (1816‐1903), landscape designer and creator of the
well‐known project for Greenwood Cemetery, and interest was highlighted by the
opinion expressed by Andrew Jackson a few years after its opening. Greenwood
Cemetery had put Hotchkiss’ landscape gardening skills to the test 223 and had
proved to be “grand, dignified, and park‐like” 224 . Despite the outbreak of a cholera
epidemic in St. Louis, which required a rapid solution to the problem (approximately
100 funerals a day were held in June 1849), the authorities in charge of cemetery
affairs decided not to make provisional choices, as they wanted to exploit an area,
which could be used for future landscaping purposes. Following Hotchkiss’
nomination as superintendent of the cemetery, the project design and construction
of curved, undulating pathways suited to the undulating topography were begun.
Hotchkiss remained as cemetery superintendent for the next 46 years, taking care
of a further development of approximately 200 acres, and paying close attention to
the layout of precise, scenic areas. After a few years, the construction of funeral
222 See DARNALL, Margareta J., “The American Cemetery as Picturesque Landscape: Bellefontaine
Cemetery, St. Louis” Winterthur Portfolio, The University of Chicago Press, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Winter,
1983), pp. 249‐269
223 David Bates Douglass (1790‐1849), engineer and cemetery designer drafted the original expansion
design, subsequently developed by Hotchkiss as superintendent. Hotchkiss worked with Zebedee
Cook on the definitive plan of the cemetery.
224 DOWNING, Andrew Jackson, cit. in NEWTON, Norman T., Design on the Land. The Development of
Landscape Architecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1971, p. 268
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