Wildwood Cemetery

Welcome to Wildwood Cemetery.  Wildwood is a non-profit, non-denominational, active cemetery in the college town of Amherst, MA.  The cemetery was established in 1887 and the landscape design was inspired by the work of the famous NY Central Park designer Fredrick Law Olmsted.  Services at the cemetery are held graveside, weather permitting. The cemetery is frequented by bird watchers and naturalists of all ages interested in our flora and fauna. Wildwood Cemetery has succeeded in preserving the nineteenth-century feel and it remains a quiet hilltop allowing for a moment of peace amidst the bustle of Amherst.

Other Questions You Might Have

Information for Veterans
We use bronze flag markers and stands which are era specific and the Douglass Funeral Home can supply you with the type we require. 

For more questions about services provided for veterans please contact the Veterans Service Office in Northampton (413)587-1299. 

You can also go online for more information.   We do not recommend the marble headstone because marble does not age well in our climate.
Green Burials
Wildwood accepts Green Burials.   We have one open grass section laid out specifically for green burials with flat markers, but we usually allow green burials on most other sections. 
Ornithology and Ecology
Interested in the nature of Wildwood?  We have a wide variety of flora and fauna.  Click here for the list of birds, animals  and trees sited on our land. 

Let us go up to Wildwood,
Haven on a starry hill,
Where one by one beneath their names
Those we love lie still,
Still as the shadows touch them
And the west pales from its red,
Still in the fresh September night
The mists creep o'er the dead.

Is it ghosts that walk in Wildwood,
Or only living trees,
That shimmer past beneath the stars
And touch us with the breeze?
This tender frail beseeching,
This presence tremulous,
Is it man to earth outreaching?
Is it earth that years for us?

Let us go up to Wildwood,
And think on men we knew,
Who from the peace wherein they lie,
Brother of earth and tree and sky,
Still through their quenchless love draw nigh
And watch to keep us true.

- John Erskine, Prof at Amherst College
(probably written between 1903-1909)
Proudly powered by Weebly