Mount Hope Cemetery, consecrated in 1836, is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States. Like Mount Auburn Cemetery (1831), near Boston, Mount Hope was designed to meet the mid-19th century city dweller's desire for access to a romanticized rural landscape. Ponds, bowers, grottos and a variety of plantings, along with tombs and monuments, typify a landscape consciously designed for the living, as well as the dead. Many of Maine's statesmen, military and civic leaders are entombed in style in Mount Hope Cemetery, which is also the final resting place of some of the infamous characters whose colorful legends still survive. The tour will begin at the Cemetery Superintendent's Office at 1048 State Street.

• Add to calendar
• Invite Friends
• Print