Western Cemetery (Portland, Maine)

{{Infobox cemetery

|name = Western Cemetery

|image = Front Entrance to the Western Cemetery.jpg

|imagesize =

|caption = The front gate to the Western Cemetery on Vaughan Street

|established = 1829

|country = United States

|location = Portland, Maine

|coordinates = {{coord|43.6455|-70.2740 |format=dms |type:landmark_region:US-ME |display=inline,title}}

|type =

|owner =

|size = {{convert|12|acre}}

|graves= ~6,600

|website =

|findagraveid=90698

|politicalgeo=ME/CU-buried.html#cms02586

}}

File:Western Cemetery Portland Maine.jpg

The Western Cemetery is an urban cemetery in Portland, Maine, United States. At one time Portland's home for the "poor and indigent", the cemetery is named for its location, in the city's West End neighborhood and near to the Western Promenade. Founded in the 18th century, the land was acquired by the city in 1829. In 1841, the city expanded the cemetery to its present {{convert|12|acres}}. The Western Cemetery was Portland's primary cemetery from 1829 to 1852, when Evergreen Cemetery was established in the suburb of Deering. It was an active cemetery until 1910.[https://www.portlandmaine.gov/603/Historic-Cemeteries Western Cemetery 2 Vaughan Street, Portland, Maine] City of Portland, Maine In October 2003, the cemetery began a restoration and reconstruction project, run by the Stewards of the Western Cemetery and the City of Portland and funded with municipal funds.[http://www.greaterportlandgraves.com/ConstructionProject/Default.asp Greater Portland Graves] The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/weekly-list-2025-03-21.htm|title=WEEKLY LIST OF ACTIONS TAKEN ON PROPERTIES: 3/14/2025 THROUGH 3/21/2025|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2025-03-30}}

Desecrations and disorganization

The Western Cemetery is known for a large number of grave desecrations and general disorganization; for example, from July 1, 1988 to August 1, 1989, an estimated 1,942 tombs were desecrated. Likewise, it is unknown how many burials have taken place in the cemetery, though author William Jordan estimated 6,600. A plan was laid out in 1840, but the document was destroyed in the 1866 Great Fire alongside much of the city. A number of tombs have been opened with no contents found inside; for example the Longfellow tomb, home to the parents of Portland resident Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was opened and nothing was found inside, with no record of what happened to those entombed there. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8H0ngEACAAJ Maine's coastal cemeteries: a historic tour] by Karen Wentworth Batignani, 2003 via Google Books

Old Catholic Ground

The Old Catholic Ground is an area in the cemetery used for Catholics, mainly (Irish) immigrants who arrived in the community in the early to mid 19th century, and for those who fled the Great Hunger from 1845 to 1852. People were buried in the Catholic section of the cemetery because there was no stand alone Catholic burial place in the community prior to 1858. The Catholic section is also known for headstones containing references to the names of counties in Ireland, and is built on what used to be known as Brown's Hill. From 1858 through the 1870s, several dozen Catholic burials were removed from Western Cemetery and reinterred at the new Catholic Cemetery named [https://portlanddiocese.org/cemeteries-and-funerals/calvary-cemetery-of-south-portland-maine Calvary Cemetery] in South Portland, Maine when it opened in 1858. Calvary Cemetery is operated by the [https://portlanddiocese.org Diocese]. In 1999, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Division I, erected a stone marking the area as the Catholic Ground, and commemorating those who perished during, or fled from The Great Hunger (An Gorta Mór).

File:Portland Maine Irish Great Hunger Memorial.JPG

Notable burials

File:Stone marking the Catholic Ground in the Western Cemetery, Portland, Maine.JPG

John Neal, eccentric and influential 19th-century writer, critic, and lecturer{{cite book | last = Sears | first = Donald A. | title = John Neal | publisher = Twayne Publishers | series = Twayne's United States Author Series | location = Boston, Massachusetts | year = 1978 | isbn = 9780805772302 | page = 121}}
Elijah Kellogg, Congregationalist minister, lecturer and author of popular boy's adventure books.
Samuel Longfellow, clergyman and hymn writer.
Stephen Longfellow, Congressman from Massachusetts, father of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Prentiss Mellen, First Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court

Western Cemetery (Portland, Maine)

Desecrations and disorganization

Old Catholic Ground

Notable burials

References

Further reading