Evergreen Cemetery is a garden-style cemetery on Stevens Avenue in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine. With 239 acres (97 ha) of land, it is the largest cemetery in the state.[2] Established in 1855, in what was then Westbrook, the cemetery is home to one of the state's most prominent collections of funerary art. The 140-acre (57 ha) historical portion of the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.[1]
Evergreen Cemetery | |
 Wilde Memorial Chapel | |
   | |
| Location | 672 Stevens Ave. Portland, Maine |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 43°40′54″N 70°18′4″W / 43.68167°N 70.30111°W |
| Area | 239 acres (97 ha) (cemetery size) 140 acres (57 ha) (National Register listing size) |
| Built | 1855 |
| Architect | Charles R. Goodell; Frederick A. Tompson |
| NRHP reference No. | 92000791[1] |
| Added to NRHP | June 18, 1992 |
| Evergreen Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1855 |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Owned by | City of Portland |
| Size | 239 acres (97 ha) |
| No. of graves | ~60,000–70,000 |
| Find a Grave | Evergreen Cemetery |
History
editThe cemetery was established in 1855 in Saccarappa (Westbrook) and became the area's main cemetery after the Western Cemetery in downtown Portland. The original parcel appears to have been about 45 acres (18 ha), which was repeatedly enlarged beginning about 1869.[3] As of March 2011, only 110 acres (45 ha) were used for cemetery-related activities.[4] The cemetery holds the records for Forest City Cemetery in South Portland. In April 2014, it was announced the cemetery would add an additional 800 to 1,000 gravesites near the main entrance while also adding a columbarium, which will hold cremated remains above ground. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people are interred in the cemetery.[5]
Description
editThe main areas of the cemetery are laid out in with winding curvilinear paths, typical of the rural cemetery movement popular in the 19th century, while later sections of the cemetery are typically (but not entirely) laid out in a more rectilinear fashion. A number of architecturally significant mausoleums are located in the cemetery, the most prominent of which are the Chisholm Tomb and the F.O.J. Smith Tomb; the former is a small-scale Classical Revival replica of the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple in Nîmes, France.[3]
Wilde Memorial Chapel
editWilde Memorial Chapel is a Gothic-style chapel. It was built as a mortuary chapel by Falmouth native Mary Ellen Lunt Wilde in 1890. It was designed by Portland architect Frederick A. Tompson and gifted to the city in 1902.[6] The granite building is used for both memorial and wedding services, with a maximum capacity of 105.[7]
Civil War veterans
editEvergreen Cemetery contains the remains of about 1,400 veterans of the American Civil War.[8] A memorial to Civil War veterans was donated by brothers Henry (then Governor of Maine) and Judge Nathan Cleaves and dedicated on May 30, 1895.[8] The monument consists of a metal soldier standing atop a granite base.
Notable interments
edit- John Appleton, congressman and assistant secretary of state
- James Phinney Baxter, businessman and Mayor of Portland
- Carroll Lynwood Beedy, congressman
- Hugh J. Chisholm, paper magnate[9]
- Asa William Henry Clapp, congressman
- Nathan Clifford, US Attorney General and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court
- Lydia Neal Dennett, abolitionist and suffragist[10]
- Neal Dow, mayor, general, candidate for president, and father of the Prohibition Movement
- Francis H. Fassett, architect
- James D. Fessenden, general
- Francis Fessenden, general
- Samuel Fessenden, lieutenant
- Samuel C. Fessenden, congressman
- Thomas Amory Deblois Fessenden, congressman
- William P. Fessenden, congressman, senator and secretary of the treasury
- Frank Fixaris, sportscaster
- Elbridge Gerry, congressman
- Charles Goddard (1879–1951), playwright and screenwriter
- Robert Christian Hale, lieutenant and congressman
- Obed Hall, congressman
- Asher Crosby Hinds, congressman
- Seth Larrabee, attorney
- Charles Thornton Libby, historian, genealogist and lawyer
- John Lynch, congressman
- Charles Mattocks, general
- Joseph C. Noyes, congressman
- Albion Parris Governor, congressman, judge.
- John J. Perry, congressman
- William Lebaron Putnam, mayor
- Thomas Brackett Reed, congressman and Speaker of the US House of Representatives
- Ether Shepley, senator
- George Foster Shepley, general
- Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith, congressman
- John Calvin Stevens, architect
- Lorenzo De Medici Sweat, congressman
- Henry Goddard Thomas, general
- William W. Thomas Jr., politician
- Charles W. Walton, congressman
Gallery
edit-
Civil War Memorial -
One of the entrances from Stevens Avenue -
The Baxter Family Monument -
Milliken mausoleum
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, 1869". Retrieved 29 July 2013.
- ^ a b "NRHP nomination for Evergreen Cemetery". National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
- ^ Portland cemetery's plans would uproot gardeners Portland Press Herald, March 22, 2011
- ^ Miller, Kevin (April 14, 2014). "Portland plans expansion of Evergreen Cemetery". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- ^ Wilde Memorial Chapel Friends of Evergreen Cemetery.
- ^ "Portland Maine Public Service site: Wilde Chapel". Archived from the original on 2010-01-24. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
- ^ a b Swartz, Brian (4 September 2014). "Meet the Heroes of Evergreen Cemetery: Part II". Maine at War: Maine and the Civil War. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ Scee, Trudy Irene (2019). Garden Cemeteries of New England. Down East Books. p. 221. ISBN 978-1-60893-908-4.
- ^ McNelly, Sue. "Biographical Sketch of Lydia Louisa Neal Dennett". Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920 – via Alexander Street.
External links
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