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By Charlie Russo, Globe Correspondent
April 6, 2006
A 282-year-old cemetery in Millis has gained recognition as a historic place after a six-year campaign by a grieving father who thought the place where his daughter was buried should be better maintained. The listing of the Prospect Hill Cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places required years of trips between the cemetery and the library by Robert Russo, a Cemetery Advisory Committee cochairman, to check gravestone names against historical records in order to build the case for national recognition.
''People said, 'Why don't you give up?' " Russo said. ''I said no. Either they're going to say yes or no. I will not give up on this."
Russo's quest began with the death of his 19-year-old daughter, Cheryl, in 1982. As he spent time in the cemetery, which is located off Auburn Road, the neglected state of the grounds bothered him.
''I was at the cemetery a lot, and I didn't like the way it looked," Russo said, noting that cemeteries are easy places to forget. ''The only people who go to a cemetery are the people who have somebody buried there."
He started by lobbying town officials for more money for cemetery upkeep, which he estimated could cost $50,000 just for tree and shrub pruning. Eventually, a town official suggested that Russo seek historic status for the cemetery, which would qualify it for grants that could be put toward maintenance and repairs. Russo began his research in 2000.
The oldest gravestone in the cemetery dates to 1724, though Russo suspects some older graves may have disappeared over time. Notable graves include those of Charles Wesley Emerson, founder of Emerson College in Boston; Christian Herter, a Massachusetts governor and secretary of state in the Eisenhower administration; and Major George Holbrook, a church bell maker who apprenticed under Paul Revere. Veterans who served in every American war, back to the French and Indian War, are buried in the cemetery, as are Medal of Honor winners from the Civil War and World War I.
One person missing from Prospect Hill Cemetery? Lansing Millis, a railroad tycoon buried in upstate New York, the man for whom the town was named.
''Figure that one out," Russo said with a chuckle. ''He's not even buried in the town named after him."
It took Russo, 68, six years to compile the 900 pages of documentation, 20 specially taken photographs, and a nine-page expert's report necessary to gain acceptance in the state historic registry in January and the national registry last month.
''It started because of [my daughter] and then it was to see if I could do it," he said. ''And then it was 'I'll be damned if I'll let them drown me in paperwork and make me go away.' "
Shary Page Berg, a Cambridge-based landscape preservation and National Register listing expert, helped survey the cemetery and compile the nine-page report, paid for with a $2,000 grant from the Millis Board of Selectmen.
''Everything takes a long time," Russo said. ''You have to have documentation. You have to have some worthy people, some known people buried there. Then they want this date, they want that date." Russo gave copies of all the documentation he submitted to the town library, so interested residents can view the records themselves. After the long effort of garnering a place in the national registry, Russo said he will leave it to others to secure grant money for the cemetery. The material Russo gathered includes a short documentary film, which he recruited high school freshman Dustin Fresh to create. The film has aired on Millis Community Access Television and was submitted to the National Student Television Award for Excellence, known as the student Emmys. Russo is pleased with how Fresh's film captured the beauty of the cemetery. Russo said the cemetery is special, because it has many hills, while most cemeteries are flat. ''It's got dips, there's bowls where people are buried," he said. ''Some of it is up high." Fresh, 16, said he enjoyed working on the documentary and learning new film techniques. ''It was actually fun," he said. ''I learned a bunch of new stuff, like doing voice-overs. I didn't know it was going to be a historic place until Bob Russo told me. I guess the film helped it." Selectmen recognized Russo's efforts at a meeting late last month. ''The registry listing is a good thing," said the board's chairman, Charles Vecchi. ''It puts Millis on the map. It gets us in line for some possible grants, which is sort of the practical part of the whole thing. It's also good because it's recognition that the cemetery deserves." More recently, Russo has wondered about the mystery of a meeting hall that once stood near the cemetery, but which vanished from historic records around 1800, he said. He guesses it burned down, though he has been unable to find any evidence to support his hypothesis. ''I have no idea what happened to it," Russo said. ''I tried to do some research and drew a blank. Maybe I'll do some more research." http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/06/father_helps_cemetery_onto_historical_list/?page=2 |
