Henry Melville Whitney

Biography

Henry Melville Whitney (1839–1923) was a businessman whose ambitions reshaped New England's transportation and energy infrastructure. He built railways, championed the Boston Elevated Railway, and invested in power companies that helped fuel the region's growth in the late nineteenth century.

Beyond his enterprises, Whitney took an interest in civic matters, supporting cultural institutions and public works that improved urban life. Visitors to Forest Hills Cemetery may pause at his grave to honor an era of bold enterprise intertwined with public mindedness.