© 2012 Vine Lake Preservation Trust

Beginnings

In September 2008 a small group of concerned citizens met to explore how best to recognize Vine Lake Cemetery’s intriguing cultural significance.  One focus was the preservation of deteriorating and broken gravestones in this National Historic Landmark. Another was the exploration of creative ways to celebrate this active public cemetery as Medfield’s only outdoor museum.

After meeting monthly, this group launched Vine Lake Preservation Trust in May 2009 as a nonprofit charitable corporation.

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.  

Directors

Maria Baler

Maureen Doctoroff

Rob Gregg

Susan Harlow

Rick Hooker

Eric O’Brien

Charlie Peck

Major Milestones

May 2009 - Vine Lake Preservation is launched, charter funding given by Needham Bank

May and June 2009 - Initial walking tours of the cemetery conducted; first volunteer clean-up project performed

September 2009 - First annual promotion of the Trust at Medfield Day

December 2009 - Publication of ‘Quiet Times,’ our free monthly newsletter

April 2010 - Arbor Day of Service conducted in partnership with the Massachusetts Arborists Association

June 2010 - Gravestone preservation workshop attended by 14 volunteers; work continued through the summer                          and fall to clean and reset gravestones

June 2010 - Sponsorship of summer intern for memorial inscription survey, funded by Mass Humanities

July 2010 - Gravestone preservation project performed by Gravestone Services of New England,

                         funded by Beckwith Post 110 American Legion

September-October 2010 - Portals, first-ever outdoor sculpture exhibition at the cemetery, partially funded by the                                                   Medfield Arts Council

January 2011 - Successful completion of first-ever direct mail funding program resulting in 144% of goal with 15%                          response rate

August 2011 - Gravestone preservation project continued, funded by private and public donors

October 2011 - Civil War Walking Tour conducted to honor 24 of the 53 veterans buried in the Old Section

January 2012 - Successful completion of second direct mail funding program resulting in 138% of goal with 14%                                        response rate

April 2012 - Publication of Walk of Among the Shadows, a self-guided map and guide to 50 sites in the Old                          Section