Festival of Trees honors city’s 300th birthday with gift to preserve historic Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery

To commemorate the City of Methuen’s 300th anniversary, the Methuen Festival of Trees recently presented a lasting gift to the community: the restoration of the fourth side of the historic Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery with a decorative black steel fence and entrance gate, to be accompanied by interpretive storyboards that share the cemetery’s remarkable history.

The project is the latest chapter in the festival’s longstanding partnership with Historic Methuen to preserve one of the city’s most treasured historic landmarks. Located on East Street across from Merrimack Valley Methuen Hospital (formerly Holy Family Hospital), Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery dates back to 1728 and serves as the final resting place for many of Methuen’s earliest families, including four veterans of the French and Indian War and 47 Minutemen who answered the call to Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

During the late 19th century, philanthropist Edward F. Searles restored the cemetery by enclosing three sides with beautiful granite and stone walls and constructing the Searles mausoleum to honor his aunt and uncle, Artemis and Lydia Searles Stearns. The remaining side, however, has long been enclosed by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Through this gift to the city, the Methuen Festival of Trees replaced that fencing with an attractive black steel fence and gate, restoring the cemetery’s historic character while creating a welcoming entrance that better reflects its significance. New interpretive storyboards (not yet installed as of MethuenLife press time) will also help visitors discover the stories of the people and events that shaped Methuen’s early history.

The dedication of the festival’s tricentennial gift took place July 4 immediately following Historic Methuen’s 7th annual Reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Meetinghouse Hill Cemetery’s new iron fence includes a grand gate, fitting for the resting place of many of Methuen’s earliest families as well as veterans of the French and Indian War and 47 Minutemen. ML photo by Melissa Fili