With its century-old trees and ornamental lake, Forest Hills Cemetery offers 275 acres of habitat and sanctuary to birds and other urban wildlife. Year-round residents include owls, red-tail hawks, and herons. In May, birds migrate through Boston, touching down in the green spaces that thread through the city. Forest Hills is a favorite stopping place, so spring is a wonderful time of year to visit with binoculars.

Forest Hills Cemetery predates the famous Boston Emerald Necklace, and for most of the 19th century was also used by Boston residents as a public park. For the Victorians, it was a fashionable destination for weekend walks and picnics, offering city dwellers a green sanctuary to reconnect with nature. The grounds are laid out in a picturesque style with curving roads, terraced overlooks, and ornamental features such as Lake Hibiscus.

Henry A.S. Dearborn and the other civic leaders who developed the notion of the rural garden cemetery believed that the beautiful and harmonious environment created by skilled design and horticulture could have a consoling effect on mourners, helping them to heal from loss. Thus the park-like aspects of Forest Hills were conceived of as essential to its success as a place for burial and remembrance.

Restrooms are available by the front gate on Forest Hills Avenue. Gates usually open around 8:00 am and close around sundown throughout the year, for more details on the cemetery's hours see the following link.