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Eastern Cemetery
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Eastern Cemetery
Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site. It has more than 4,000 marked graves with an estimated further 3,000 burials in unmarked plots. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The cemetery is owned by the city of Portland. The volunteer nonprofit group Spirits Alive, founded in 2006, is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the cemetery through conservation and education. Spirits Alive offers daily walking tours from June through mid-October.
Eastern Cemetery is located on the northeastern part of the Portland peninsula, at the base of Munjoy Hill. It occupies a roughly triangular, seven-acre lot bounded on the north by Congress Street, the east by Mountfort Street, and the south by Federal Street. The sloping lot is only at street level along Congress and part of Mountfort Street, the rest supported by a stone retaining wall. Its street-facing sides are ringed by iron fencing, with the main entrance gates on Congress Street. The landscape is mostly grass, with a few widely spaced trees.
Eastern Cemetery was comprehensively surveyed by City Engineer William Goodwin in 1890. Goodwin's map divided the cemetery into 12 sections, A to L. Every individual grave marker, monument or tomb—a total of 4,189—was assigned a number within one of these sections.
The only building in the cemetery is the Dead House, a small shed that stands immediately inside the front gate. Built in 1871 and restored 2014–2016, the Dead House protects the entrance to the City Receiving Tomb. The 21-foot-long underground tomb, built in 1849, had space for temporary storage of up to 80 coffins during the winter months. Use of the tomb was discontinued after about 40 years.
The earliest burials were clustered in what is now Section E near a tall Norway pine. Successive replacement trees were planted after the original tree blew down; the current white pine was planted in 1969.
The size of the cemetery was approximately doubled in 1795, when the city purchased a plot of land along Congress Street from the Reverend Thomas Smith. The land, now Sections A and B, had been used as a town common; at one time a gallows and stocks stood there.
Eighty-six underground family tombs were constructed on the new land. Laid out in four rows, the tombs could house up to thirty coffins each.
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Eastern Cemetery
Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site. It has more than 4,000 marked graves with an estimated further 3,000 burials in unmarked plots. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The cemetery is owned by the city of Portland. The volunteer nonprofit group Spirits Alive, founded in 2006, is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the cemetery through conservation and education. Spirits Alive offers daily walking tours from June through mid-October.
Eastern Cemetery is located on the northeastern part of the Portland peninsula, at the base of Munjoy Hill. It occupies a roughly triangular, seven-acre lot bounded on the north by Congress Street, the east by Mountfort Street, and the south by Federal Street. The sloping lot is only at street level along Congress and part of Mountfort Street, the rest supported by a stone retaining wall. Its street-facing sides are ringed by iron fencing, with the main entrance gates on Congress Street. The landscape is mostly grass, with a few widely spaced trees.
Eastern Cemetery was comprehensively surveyed by City Engineer William Goodwin in 1890. Goodwin's map divided the cemetery into 12 sections, A to L. Every individual grave marker, monument or tomb—a total of 4,189—was assigned a number within one of these sections.
The only building in the cemetery is the Dead House, a small shed that stands immediately inside the front gate. Built in 1871 and restored 2014–2016, the Dead House protects the entrance to the City Receiving Tomb. The 21-foot-long underground tomb, built in 1849, had space for temporary storage of up to 80 coffins during the winter months. Use of the tomb was discontinued after about 40 years.
The earliest burials were clustered in what is now Section E near a tall Norway pine. Successive replacement trees were planted after the original tree blew down; the current white pine was planted in 1969.
The size of the cemetery was approximately doubled in 1795, when the city purchased a plot of land along Congress Street from the Reverend Thomas Smith. The land, now Sections A and B, had been used as a town common; at one time a gallows and stocks stood there.
Eighty-six underground family tombs were constructed on the new land. Laid out in four rows, the tombs could house up to thirty coffins each.
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