Canton Corner Cemetery Preservation Plan

By Guest

Historical snapshot of Canton Corner Cemetery facing Great Blue Hill. (Image courtesy of Canton Historical Society)

The Canton Community Preservation Committee (CCPC) will host a public presentation of the newly completed Canton Corner Cemetery Preservation Plan on Monday, September 28, at 7 p.m. in the Salah Meeting Room on the second floor of Town Hall.

Canton Corner Cemetery is one of the community’s most significant historic landscapes. With nearly three centuries of continuous use, the cemetery reflects changing traditions of burial, remembrance, craftsmanship, and landscape design. It is located within the Canton Corner National Historic District and includes colonial-era burial grounds, 19th-century churchyard and garden cemetery sections, and the rural cemetery landscape designed by noted landscape architect Henry A. S. Dearborn.

The preservation plan was funded through the Community Preservation Act and supported by a vote at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting for Fiscal Year 2026. Town meeting voters approved $295,000 for the initiative, including $95,000 to prepare the plan and $200,000 for preservation work following completion and approval of the report.

Under the leadership of the Canton Department of Public Works, this is a landmark project. Led by Ray Dunetz Landscape Architecture, Inc., with specialized assessments by Building and Monument Conservation and Arbor LLC, the study included historical research and a comprehensive examination of gravestones, monuments, trees, walls, paths, gates, landscape features, and site infrastructure.

The report found that while most gravestones in the cemetery’s historic sections remain stable, approximately 39 percent require some level of attention. Its recommendations prioritize the repair and resetting of vulnerable gravestones, treatment or removal of hazardous trees, improvements to paths and accessibility, repairs to walls and fencing, landscape restoration, and a long-term maintenance program. The plan also provides cost estimates and a phased framework to guide future preservation, conservation, investment and stewardship.

Some of the preservation work and associated costs identified in the plan are eligible for funding through the Community Preservation Act. The CCPC expects to receive one or two applications related to the cemetery preservation work for the FY28 funding cycle. Any applications will be reviewed through the town’s CPA process and, if recommended for funding, will be presented for consideration and a vote at the Annual Town Meeting in May 2027.

The September 28 presentation will give residents an opportunity to hear directly from the consultants, explore the report’s principal findings and recommendations, understand the costs and justifications of the related CPA funding requests, and learn how the town can protect this irreplaceable historic resource for generations to come.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

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