The Mount Hope Cemetery of Bangor, Maine

Book excerpt: Mount Hope Cemetery was established in 1834 by the Bangor Horticultural Society to accommodate the growing needs of a booming lumber town. Shortly after it was created, its founders reincorporated as the Mount Hope Cemetery Corporation and proceeded to establish a nonsectarian, horticultural-based cemetery. The corporation began to beautify its grounds, creating walkways, gardens, bridges and ponds--making it the second garden cemetery in the United States and earning it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. From Bangor mayors, Civil War heroes and a United States vice president to lumber barons and gangsters, the cemetery is the resting place of the city's most colorful and venerable residents. With the erection of monuments and the donation of land, Mount Hope Cemetery also made important contributions to the City on the Penobscot. In the twenty-first century, it remains a popular location for burials and with visitors to its picturesque ground. Join historian Trudy Irene Scee as she celebrates this enduring centerpiece of the Bangor community.