January 6, 2022
In 1999 a newly prepared, 130-page Medfield Historic Preservation Plan cited Vine Lake Cemetery as a major but somewhat neglected historic asset in town.
In 2002, David Temple, chair of the Medfield Historical Commission, successfully applied to the Massachusetts Historical Commission for a survey and planning grant to hire a consultant to assess the condition of the cemetery and prepare a workable plan to improve it. The grant required matching funds, which were granted via a town meeting appropriation. The commission selected Martha Lyon of Northampton to prepare the plan; she also oversaw another consultant whose task was to prepare a National Register of Historic Places nomination.
Martha Lyon’s plan was warmly received, and the NRHP nomination was secured for Vine Lake Cemetery.
The next year David Temple went back to Massachusetts Historical Commission and got another matching grant to do some of the most pressing restoration work: repairing and cleaning selected broken grave markers, fixing and adding railings to stairways, improving entrances and walkways, managing trees and vegetation, and more.
Much of that grant-funded work was done in 2005, but the need remained for ongoing work to continue what was outlined in the Lyon plan.
Rob Gregg, a long-time historical activist, stepped forward with other directors of Vine Lake Preservation Trust to create a vision and the mission for the cemetery.
Vision
Medfield’s Vine Lake Cemetery is one of the most intriguing cultural records of our past. Since 1651, the burial ground and cemetery has remained a location for solitude, contemplation, and reflection where families come to honor and celebrate life in a peaceful environment. As an active cemetery and one of the last surviving remnants of Medfield’s beginnings, the cemetery artfully combines important social, historical, architectural, natural, and archeological environments. In addition to being a tranquil and dignified public open space, it serves today as an imaginative outdoor museum. As such, Vine Lake Cemetery is a popular repository of family history while telling a compelling story about evolving attitudes towards death, burial, and public landscapes.
Mission
Vine Lake Preservation Trust exists to attract funding and to establish Vine Lake Cemetery as a vibrant cultural resource by delivering programs in education, preservation, restoration, and beautification to all ages. In addition, Vine Lake Preservation Trust seeks to create a rewarding partnership not only with the families and friends of those interred, but also with the community-at-large which is drawn to the cemetery’s historical significance, its contemporary interpretive importance, and its passive public use.
Rob Gregg served as president during the Trust’s twelve-year existence. The initial directors were Maria Baler, Jim Feeney, Susan Harlow, Bob Macleod, Eric O’Brien, Charlie Peck, Marian Pierre Louis, and Vicki Schepps. Directors Maria Baler, Maureen Doctoroff, Susan Harlow, Rick Hooker, and Charlie Peck served with steadfast dedication for almost all of the Trust’s history.
In the dozen years of its service, scores of donors and volunteers helped in a variety of ways. Major accomplishments of the Trust were:
- Preserving and cleaning countless memorials in the Old Section
- Maintaining trees and shrubs at three Arbor Days of Service
- Installing four-season plantings in raised curbed lots
- Enhancing the hillside garden facing Main Street
Celebrating veterans with walking tours - Creating an app for finding graves and recording family histories and stories
- Creating walking tours, both conducted and self-guided
- Communicating the Trust’s story in its website and monthly Quiet Voices newsletter
With its founding tasks of preservation, enhancement, interpretation, and celebration fulfilled, and with Rob Gregg’s decision to retire, the Directors voted to dissolve the Trust according to the steps outlined by the Massachusetts Attorney General.
The Trust’s assets are to be transferred to the town of Medfield’s Cemetery Preservation Trust Account in order to manage the on-going preservation of memorials only in the Old Section. The town will also host the Vine Lake Cemetery app on its website, so that the cemetery records of the Old Section will remain available to the public. In addition, VLPT’s historical information and photos are being added to the Medfield Historical Society’s website.