Forest Hills Cemetery
Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic, roughly 275-acre cemetery in the Forest Hills area of Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts. It serves as a burial ground, greenspace, arboretum, and sculpture garden.
The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public cemetery for Roxbury. When Roxbury joined Boston in 1868, Forest Hills became a private cemetery. It was designed by Henry A. S. Dearborn, inspired by Mount Auburn Cemetery, to provide a park-like place to bury and remember loved ones. The initial land added about 14.5 acres, bringing the size to about 71 acres; it later grew to about 225–275 acres.
Forest Hills sits in southern Jamaica Plain. It is bordered by Walk Hill Street on the southwest, the American Legion Highway on the southeast, and Arborway and Morton Street on the northeast, where the entrance is. It is near Hyde Park Avenue to the northwest, Franklin Park to the northeast, and the Arnold Arboretum, forming part of the Emerald Necklace greenspace.
The cemetery features notable monuments, including works by sculptors Daniel Chester French (Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor) and John Wilson (Firemen’s Memorial). It remains an active cemetery with interments on most days.
In 1893, Massachusetts’s first crematorium was added, along with a scattering garden and indoor and outdoor columbariums.
In 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were cremated here; their ashes were later returned to Italy.
Forest Hills Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference number 04001219), added on November 17, 2004.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 02:12 (CET).