Houston's Silent Garden

Book excerpt: Glenwood Cemetery has long offered a serene and pastoral final resting place for many of Houston's civic leaders and historic figures. In Houston's Silent Garden, Suzanne Turner and Joanne Seale Wilson reveal the story of this beautifully wooded and landscaped preserve's development—a story that is also very much entwined with the history of Houston. In 1871, recovering from Reconstruction, a group of progressive citizens noticed that Houston needed a new cemetery at the edge of the central city. Embracing the picturesque aesthetic that had swept through the Eastern Seaboard, the founders of Glenwood selected land along Buffalo Bayou and developed Glenwood. Since then, the cemetery's monuments have memorialized the lives of many of the city's most interesting residents (Allen, Baker, Brown, Clayton, Cooley, Cullinan, Farish, Hermann, Hobby, House, Hughes, Jones, Law, Rice, Staub, Sterling, Weiss, and Wortham, among many others). The monuments also showcase the artistry and craftsmanship of some of the region's finest sculptors and artisans. Accompanied by the breathtaking photography of Paul Hester, this book chronicles the cemetery's origins from its inception in 1871 to the present day. Through the story of Glenwood, readers will appreciate some of the natural features that shaped Houston's evolution and will also begin to understand the forces of urbanization that positioned Houston to become the vital community it is today. Houston's Silent Garden is a must-read for those interested in Houston civic and regional history, architecture, and urban planning.