I hope that you have enjoyed reading about Oak Lawn’s storied history – our founders, early leaders, and prominent figures interred here. But Oak Lawn’s story isn’t over. I’m going to tell you about Oak Lawn today.

Realizing the tremendous natural gift that we have with our nearly 100 acres, which include burial grounds, woodlands, wetlands and nature preserves, Oak Lawn’s Board of Directors established a plan to further develop our natural resources in an environmentally conscious way. Our goal is to provide families with multiple interment options in our developed areas, at the same time managing our woodlands, wetlands and nature preserves for the benefit of our community and the environment.

Oak Lawn’s Mausoleum

For those who prefer above-ground burial, we opened the Oak Lawn Mausoleum in 2003. Welcoming visitors with an atmosphere of style and grace, the mausoleum is a state-of-the-art facility located in a private, wooded setting on our beautiful grounds. A full range of indoor and outdoor above-ground burial options are offered, including single, double and family granite and marble crypts, and single and double granite and glass niches. The interior of the mausoleum provides the perfect setting for a funeral service for up to 100 people.

Dedication of Veterans Memorial celebrated

After two years of research, design and construction, we celebrated the dedication of our Veterans Memorial on May 17, 2014. The memorial, which graces the entrance to our grounds, is dedicated to all those who served in the armed forces of the United States of America to keep us a free and great nation.

An ever-increasing number of Fairfielders are visiting the memorial every day to pay homage to our veterans.

Oak Lawn’s Apiaries

We maintain two apiaries (beehives) on our grounds. One is located just inside our front gate. The other is located in the northeast section of our grounds, next to our pollinator garden. The beekeepers are all volunteers from the Fairfield organization for arboreta. Oak Lawn is the only cemetery in the state of Connecticut with that designation. We invite you to visit us and take our self-guided tree tour, which coves 0.8 miles and takes about 30 minutes. Twenty trees are on the tour, all of which are identified with tags indicating their botanical and common names. The self-guided tour brochure can be downloaded from our website at www.oaklawnct.com.

In a further extension of Oak Lawn’s commitment to the environment, we participate in “Trees In Memory”, a program administered by the Arbor Day Foundation. As part of the program, we plant a tree in one of America’s national parks in memory of every person laid to rest at Oak Lawn. By doing this, we are establishing a lasting living memorial to the deceased, at the same time contributing to the reforestation of our national parks that have been devastated by wildfires. Over the past year, we have planted almost 200 trees.

Initiative to control invasive plant species

Many of you are aware of the danger imposed by invasive plant species that have been appearing in rural areas throughout the United States. As part of our environmental stewardship, we applied for and were awarded a grant by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), under the agency’s America the Beautiful program. We developed a program to eradicate non-native invasive plants, such as Japanese knotweed, Oriental bittersweet vines, black locusts and ailanthus trees, all of which had established a presence on our grounds near the Mill River. We expect this program will be ongoing for several years.

We are optimistic that this multiyear initiative will be successful and look forward to sharing our story with the community with the hopes that it will help others who undertake similar efforts to deal with this ongoing threat to the environment.

Bird and nature walks

As part of our community outreach, we have conducted bird and nature walks through our woodlands led by well-known local ornithologists and arborists. This year, a local Boy Scout troop developed a nature walk on our grounds as part of an Eagle Scout project.

In summary, Oak Lawn today is a vibrant, multi-dimensional organization that is dedicated to preserving our community’s proud past by providing and maintaining a sacred natural environment, which honors and memorializes our departed citizens. We are honored to be the custodians of our community’s past.

While we honor the past, we embrace the present and future by offering the community a park-like environment rich with opportunities to explore nature through scheduled events on our grounds, a casual daytime self-guided tree tour or a leisurely stroll to admire our historic monuments.

Please stop by and experience all that Oak Lawn has to offer. Be sure to visit the kiosk just inside our front office. It contains a map of our grounds and other information about Oak Lawn.

By Bronson Hawley