Baby Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts. The 3,000 square foot plot of land is located at the end of Pond Farm Road, near the border with Westwood.^[1][2][3]

In 1863, Hannah B. Chickering established the Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners on land that once belonged to Eliphalet Pond in Dedham.^[4] The halfway house served women who had left prison, and the children buried there were born to them.^[1][2][3] Many of the women, who were housed with men, were sexually assaulted while in prison.^[1]

There are 11 small, oval stones made of marble marking the graves of children, but records indicate that at least two more were buried there.^[1][2][3] The oldest was two years and one day old, and most were less than one year old.^[1] All died between 1871 and 1882^[1][2][3] and it has since closed.^[5] It is thought that there could be as many as 50 more bodies buried there, including some women.^[3]

The land was purchased in the late 1940s by Joseph Stivaletta, a local developer.^[3][1][a] He discovered the graves and, rather than disturb them, set the land aside and did not build a home on it.^[1][3] When Massachusetts Route 128 was being constructed, Stivaletta convinced then-Transportation Secretary John Volpe to move the road rather than disturb the graves.^[3] Volpe's family came from the same small town in Italy as Stivaletta.^[3]

Stivaletta died in 1956 and property taxes were not paid on the property, resulting in a lein being placed on the property in 1963.^[1][2] Neighbors cared for the property for many years, mowing the grass and planting flowers.^[1][3] The Town of Dedham was unaware of the cemetery's existence until alerted to it by a neighbor in 1991.^[1]

Town Meeting voted to accept the cemetery in 1998 after being gifted the land from the Stivaletta family.^[2][1][3]