Greenlawn Cemetery

• This city cemetery is bounded by Orne and Appleton Streets and Liberty Hill Avenue. This cemetery, started in 1807, is also an arboretum and within its approximately 55 acres more than 200 species of trees thrive. It is the largest of Salem's five municipal cemeteries.
• A beautiful memorial chapel and conservatory, erected in 1894, by Walter Scott Dickson in memory of his wife, is located here. Dickson Chapel is a High Victorian Gothic work of architecture, made with light-brown granite with trim of olive stone. The conservatory was taken down in the 1970's after it suffered damage.

• In 1887 the cemetery was enclosed with an iron fence and gates, 1,087 feet long. Major improvements were initiated in 1933 and 1934 with W.P.A. workers planting many botanical specimens.
• A Civil War Memorial, the Henry Merritt Camp Memorial, sits on the Appleton Street side of the cemetery, placed here by the Sons of Veterans in 1886. Erected and dedicated by Lieut. Col. Henry Merritt.
• F. Carroll Sargent, noted arborist, brought many varieties of trees and shrubs from all over North America, China, Japan, Europe, Manchuria, Siberia and Korea to plant at the cemetery. Notable speciments are the following trees: Amur Cork, Dawn Redwood, Osage Orange, Yellowwood, and Katsura Trees.
• In 1934 the Workers Progress Administration (WPA) workers planted hundreds of trees. Over the years that followed, seeds of shrubs and trees were received from the Arnold Arboretum and started and nurtured in the cemetery greenhouses for eventual planting on the grounds. Longtime Cemetery Commissioner F. Carroll Sargent was instrumental in continuing the tradition of planting and propagating trees and shrubs for the cemetery.
• Some of the more notable persons interred here are: Kate Tannatt Woods (author, educator, poet), John Symonds, Capt. Robert Foster, Arthur Huddell (union organizer), Walter Scott Dickson (philanthropist, industrialist), and Rev. Jacob Stroyer (author, social reformer, minister).
• There are two bodies of water, Sargent Pond and Fountain Pond.
• A new group of volunteers formed in 2013 called Friends of Greenlawn. Their mission is to "help restore, beautify and maintain Greenlawn Cemetery now and in the future through grants, funding and public awareness."
• The group Friends of Greenlawn have completed a tree inventory of the cemetery. You can use the interactive map to identify the trees here: Tree inventory at Greenlawn
• A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Nov. 28th, 2017 to showcase the Rose Window restoration inside the Dickson Memorial Chapel. The Friends of Greenlawn celebrated the first phase of the restoration of this historic chapel.
• The Greenlawn Arboretum was officially named F. Carroll Sargent Arboretum at Greenlawn Cemetery in 2020.

• If you are interested in finding out if a person is buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, the Cemetery Dept. can be reached at (978) 745-0195. There is also an online way to search at the city website

Greenlawn Burial search Cemetery find.com

See Also

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Greenlawn Cemetery

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Dickson, Scott

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Greenlawn Cemetery Tour (booklets from 2014-2019)

• "Life among the dead" Salem Evening News, June 30,1989 p.1

• "Trees of spring" Salem Evening News, March 24, 1990 p.1.

• Essex Institute Historical Collection Jan. 1981, Vol. 117, No. 1, p. 43-53 (article by Rita L. Pitcoff)

• Architecture in Salem by Bryant F. Tolles, p. 270-1 (Dickson Chapel)

• Merritt Camp Civil War Memorial Smithsonian Institute Catalog.

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Cemeteries

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Civil War Monuments

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Stroyer, Jacob

• Find A Grave: Greenlawn Cemetery Website

• "Shining in Salem: City celebrates first phase of restoration at historic chapel" Salem News, Nov. 29, 2017, p. 1

• "Resurrecting the lost arboretum of Salem" Boston Globe Dec. 18, 2023, p.?