Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey
Crescent Street (Hall Place Cemetery)
GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF ART WORK
There are two especially notable monuments in the Hall Place Cemetery, both honoring Solomon Willard, the famous architect who close to this cemetery opened up the quarries of West Quincy, and led the community to appreciate the beauties of granite architecture. Willard’s simple tombstone bears the inscription: "Within this tomb are the remains of Solomon Willard / Born in Petersham, Mass, / June 26, 1783 / Died in Quincy Feb. 27, 1861/ A Public Spirited and Patriotic Citizen / an Accomplished Architect / Whose memory will always be associated with the Monument on Bunker Hill."
The second monument is a giant column (see essay below) on which is inscribed Willard's birth and death dates and a plaque reading "Solomon Willard / Architect and Builder / Bunker Hill Association." A. further inscription reads: "Prosperity ought to know that they are more indebted to Solomon Willard than to any other person for the monument." Signed: “Amos Lawrence, president of the Bunker Hill Monument Association.”)
HISTORICAL SIGNICANCE
Hall Cemetery was begun in 1841 by a corporate body of eleven gentlemen desiring a cemetery in West Quincy. Not only the land on Cemetery Street but funds to create the cemetery were donated by a wealthy Adams Street bachelor, James Hall. Solomon Willard laid out the cemetery and several years later raised in it an enormous thirty ton column, quarried at Wigwam Quarry, which had been rejected for use in the New York Exchange. Before setting the column upright, Willard deposited a complete set of stonecutter's tools in the top of the shaft.
Beside its picturesque beauty, this West Quincy cemetery is singularly significant for its association with Solomon Willard, “the Father of the Granite Industry" and noted architect of the Bunker Hill Monument and the Quincy City Hall, 1305 Hancock Street.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
"A Historic Sketch of Solomon Willard". Pamphlet. 1886.
Assessors records.
William Churchill Edwards. Historic Quincy, Massachusetts. 1957. p. 252-5.
Paul Robert Lyons. Quincy: A Pictorial History. 1983. p. 51, 164.
William S. Pattee. History of Old Braintree and Quincy, 1878. p. 146-147.
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