Baby Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts. The 3,000 square foot plot of land is located at the end of Pond Farm Road, near the border with Westwood.[1][2][3]
In 1863, Hannah B. Chickering established the Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners on land that once belonged to Eliphalet Pond in Dedham.[4] The halfway house served women who had left prison, and the children buried there were born to them.[1][2][3] Many of the women, who were housed with men, were sexually assaulted while in prison.[1]
There are 11 small, oval stones made of marble marking the graves of children, but records indicate that at least two more were buried there.[1][2][3] The oldest was two years and one day old, and most were less than one year old.[1] All died between 1871 and 1882[1][2][3] and it has since closed.[5] It is thought that there could be as many as 50 more bodies buried there, including some women.[3]
The land was purchased in the late 1940s by Joseph Stivaletta, a local developer.[3][1][a] He discovered the graves and, rather than disturb them, set the land aside and did not build a home on it.[1][3] When Massachusetts Route 128 was being constructed, Stivaletta convinced then-Transportation Secretary John Volpe to move the road rather than disturb the graves.[3] Volpe's family came from the same small town in Italy as Stivaletta.[3]
Stivaletta died in 1956 and property taxes were not paid on the property, resulting in a lein being placed on the property in 1963.[1][2] Neighbors cared for the property for many years, mowing the grass and planting flowers.[1][3] The Town of Dedham was unaware of the cemetery's existence until alerted to it by a neighbor in 1991.[1]
Town Meeting voted to accept the cemetery in 1998 after being gifted the land from the Stivaletta family.[2][1][3]
Notes
edit- ^ Stivaletta is the father of Arthur Stivaletta.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Brems, Lisa (April 12, 1998). "For 'baby cemetery,' a taxing reemergence". The Boston Globe. p. 17. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Brems, Lisa (April 19, 1998). "Dedham Town Meeting vote accepts 'baby cemetery'". The Boston Globe. p. 45. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Tiny cemetery recalls a forgotten story". The Dedham Times. March 6, 1998.
- ^ Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1884). History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J. W. Lewis & Company. p. 90. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
- ^ Seltz, Johanna (August 28, 2014). "Nearing Earthy Limits". The Boston Globe. p. Z1. Retrieved August 31, 2019.