Marie Kendall took this photograph of “The Willows” lining Greenwoods Road just below Blackberry Street about 1890. It is now the site of a massive retaining wall under construction to stabilize the hillside on which Center Cemetery sits. Little did the town proprietors realize the future instability of the land they chose in 1757 for the burying ground. The cemetery was enlarged twice, first in 1774 and later in 1875. By then, generations had been buried there, and property to the west and south was purchased, bringing the cemetery very close to the highway below. There was opposition to this, with residents preferring that the town open an entirely new cemetery instead of enlarging the old one. In the disastrous flood of 1955, the Blackberry River compromised the steep slope below the cemetery, and a series of dry masonry retaining walls was built. These modest walls have now been replaced with a gargantuan soldier piles and lagging wall, whose textured stone veneer attempts to create a pleasing aesthetic. Had the opposition to enlarge the cemetery back in 1875 succeeded, perhaps this would have changed the outcome that resulted in a multi-million-dollar repair.

—Ann Havemeyer