Pine Grove Cemetery Improvements and Walls – Lynn MA

Description

“The most ambitious efforts of the early 20th century at Pine Grove were undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Newspaper articles indicate that the WPA undertook a number of projects at Pine Grove: building concrete toolboxes (to provide a place to keep tools near active work areas), stripping and grading new burial areas, laying drains and gutters.”

“The Fieldstone Perimeter Wall built by the Works Progress Administration extends along the entire perimeter of the 152-acre cemetery, except for the section along Boston Street on either side of the main gate … and the section along Gallagher Park … The WPA wall is built of mortared local fieldstone, surmounted in some places by a decorative top course of smaller stones. The rustic wall is remarkable for its length and skilled construction, which varies somewhat based on the topography through which it passes. It is generally freestanding but in places becomes a retaining wall. … [T]he wall, which was probably influenced by the local Italian and Greek WPA workers who were hired to build the wall.”