IN BOARD OF ALDERMEN, May 4, 1874. Ordered to be printed, and referred to the Committee on Mount Hope Cemetery. Sent down for concurrence. JOHN T. CLARK, Chairman. In Common Council, May 7, 1874. Concurred. E. O. SHEPARD, President. CITY OF BOSTON. OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF CITY HALL, May 2, 1874. To the Honorable City Council: } The Trustees of Mount Hope Cemetery have the pleasure to submit herewith their Sixteenth Annual Report for the financial year ending April 30, 1874. REPORT. The balance on hand at the commencement of the year was $6,867.42. The annual appropriation made by the City Council, $15,000; receipts for sale of lots, etc., during the year, $20,793.69; total, $42,661.11. The expenditures on account of the cemetery were $39,849.37, leaving a balance on hand of $2,811.74. The receipts for the sale of lots, as compared with the previous year, show a decrease of about twenty-three hundred dollars. Several times during the past year, the attention of the Trustees has been called by persons desirous of purchasing lots, to the fact that the city was offering lots in its other cemetery (the "Cedar Grove ") at much lower prices per foot than those charged in Mount Hope, thus actually competing with itself, and at the same time granting annual appropriations to both cemeteries. This state of things ought not to exist. Either both cemeteries should be placed under one management, or the City Council should establish a uniform scale of prices for the lots. In this connection, in should be borne in mind, that the larger part of the annual appropriation made for Mount Hope is required for that part of the inclosure known as the "City Cemetery, where strangers and the poor are buried for a merely nominal price. During the year a very successful effort has been made to provide a permanent fund for the perpetual care of lots, and it is hoped that other lot-owners will recognize the importance of this effort, and avail themselves of the opportunity of depositing with the city a sum, the interest on which will secure in the future the extra care and labor which are bestowed upon lots thus provided for. The labor performed in the cemetery during the year comprises the finishing of sixty-eight lots between Central and Channing avenues and eleven half-lots on Greenwood avenue. Eleven hundred and forty-five feet of roadway have been made and underlaid with stone, and seven hundred feet of gutters have been paved. Substantial progress has been made upon the pond-about one acre having been excavated to the depth of from three to ten feet. One hundred and twenty-one monuments and tablets have been erected, among which is the very handsome monument of cannon on the lot owned by Post 7, of the Grand Army of the Republic. The interments made during the year number 506, making in all, 6,646 now in the cemetery, exclusive of those in the City Cemetery. The additional facilities provided during the past year for conveyance to the cemetery, meet the hearty approval of the public, and the same management will be continued during the ensuing year, with an additional coach running, to connect with trains on the Old Colony Railroad at Mattapan, for the convenience of lot-owners residing in South Boston and Dorchester. In conclusion, it gives the Trustees pleasure to again acknowledge the generous co-operation of the City Council, as shown by their appropriations for the coming year, and to |