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BOSTON – If you’re looking for a way to enjoy the outdoors, but at the same time break away from the usual routine, there’s just the place for you in a cemetery in Boston.
Tucked in a small area between Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum is the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain.
The 275 acre parcel of land features manicured landscapes, beautiful structures, and rare works of art. Visitors are encouraged and free tours are given.
It’s a lovely place if you don’t mind the headstones.
Forest Hills Cemetery was founded in 1848 by Henry Dearborn. Back then, most cemeteries were for the rich and connected. Dearborn had a different vision. Initially, plots were given away at low or no cost to the working class. Over the years, it’s grown in size and scope.
“Architecture, abolitionists, artists, just a wide variety of people of interest that are interred here,” cemetery director George Milley told WBZ-TV.
The cemetery features impressive sculptures, a half dozen from the designer of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“We’re very fortunate. We have the largest collection of Daniel Chester French memorial sculptures in the country, we have 6 pieces,” Milley said.
The Dearborn Pavilion is a welcoming, landscaped area that features a stonework gazebo that attracts all sorts of people. It’s also an expansive mausoleum.
“Many times we’ll come by and there will be people sitting underneath, reading or having a coffee. On occasion we’ll have kids’ groups playing instruments under there,” Milley said.
There are more haunting attractions at the cemetery, like the “girl in the glass.”
“Upon her passing, the family commissioned a local sculptor to sculpt a full-size likeness of her in marble,” Milley told WBZ.
From creepy to inspirational, there’s a little of everything at Forest Hills. Boston College graduates will recognize an eagle sculpture atop a headstone that was the basis for the golden sculpture that greets visitors by the main entrance on campus. There are also highly symbolic pieces like the Fireman’s Lot which is the location for an annual memorial service.
Tours are offered during the warmer months and visitors are asked to respect the grounds. Dogs and bicycles are not allowed. For more information, go to the cemetery’s website.
This time, the people marched in resistance to the harsh treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.
“We descend from Immigrants and Revolutionaries,” read a battle cry beamed onto the side of the brick meeting house Tuesday.
“The society that stops seeing the people at the grocery line or the people that ride the bus with us, as human beings with beating hearts, then it’s not far off before our society devolves into no society at all,” Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said to the crowd of hundreds.
The protest was organized by activist groups Boston Indivisible and Mass 50501, and began at the Irish Famine Memorial Plaza, just steps from the meeting house.
The lively crowd held up signs, waved American flags, and chanted during the march along Milk Street and Congress Street to the harbor.
Janet England of Brighton held a sign that read, “Democracy Needs Courage.”
The protesters, she said are “true patriots because we want freedom and democracy.”
“Although protest is a long game, we can’t give up. If you think about women’s suffrage, gay rights, the civil rights movement, it took years, but we just can’t give up,” she said.
Gloria Krusemeyer, from Alrington, used a walker to join the march.
“I’m irritated that I haven’t done more, and I’m just lucky that I can walk fast enough to be doing this,” she said.
Rick Mueller, from Cambridge, was dressed as Uncle Sam and held a large sign that read, “Liberty and Justice For All.”
“We’re fighting for America, so I’m gonna be America,” he said of his costume.
He handed small American flags out to protesters who waved them enthusiastically.
Ice dumping duties was limited to volunteers and select people.
Among them was Sarah, a mother who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Fiona.
Sarah declined to share her last name for her daughter’s safety.
After throwing ice into the harbor, Fiona shyly said that she wanted to come to the protest to “help families stay together.”
Through tears, Sarah said her decision to bring along Fiona came from wanting to teach her daughter to care about people from all walks of life.
“Kindness and compassion are things we learn in kindergarten and she will be in kindergarten so it’s really important for her to be kind and compassionate,” Sarah said, kissing her daughter’s check.
Likewise, Sara Sievers, from Cambridge, brought her parents, sister, her nephews and niece to dump ice.
“I think this is one of the most brutal regimes we’ve had in this country, and I want my niece and nephew to remember that it’s important to protest, and that we in Boston are part of a proud tradition of dumping things into the harbor with which we disagree,” Sievers said.
The family wore costumes of historical figures including Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and King Charles.
As the protest came to a close, Martha Laposata, spokesperson for Boston Indivisible said she wanted protestors to walk away knowing their voices matter.
“We cannot stand down,” Laposata said. “When people rise up against an authoritarian government, if they stay consistent and they keep growing, ultimately an authoritarian government will stand down.”
Camille Bugayong can be reached at camille.bugayong@globe.com.
Crime
An MIT professor was shot and killed in Brookline on Monday night.
Brookline police responded a report of a man shot in his home on Gibbs Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning, the DA says.
Loureiro was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. Originally from Portugal, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs announced his death in a regulatory hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities on Tuesday, according to CNN.
“Sadly, I can confirm that Professor Nuno Loureiro, who died early this morning, was a current MIT faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in a statement.
In January, Loureiro was honored as one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former president Joe Biden.
The investigation into the homicide remains ongoing. No further information was released.
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A man was hospitalized after being shot Monday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The shooting happened on Gibbs Street. There was a large police presence at the scene.
The victim was brought to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His condition was not known.
Police said the victim was shot three times and grazed by another round.
Authorities did not say if any arrests had been made.
No further information was immediately available.
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