Evergreen Cemetery is a garden style

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

in the Deering neighborhood of Portland,

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

. With of land, it is the largest cemetery in the state. 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 historical portion of the cemetery was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1992.

History

The cemetery was established in 1855 in Saccarappa ( Westbrook) and became the area's main cemetery after the Western Cemetery. The original parcel appears to have been about , which was repeatedly enlarged beginning about 1869. As of March 2011, only were used for cemetery-related activities. 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 A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

, which will hold cremated remains above ground. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people are interred in the cemetery.

Description

The 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 Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Wilde Memorial Chapel

Wilde Memorial Chapel is a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

-style chapel. It was built as a

mortuary chapel A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

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. The

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

building is used for both memorial and wedding services, with a maximum capacity of 105.

Civil War veterans

Evergreen Cemetery contains the remains of about 1,400 veterans of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

. A memorial to Civil War veterans was donated by brothers Henry (then Governor of Maine) and Judge

Nathan Cleaves Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) * Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David a ...

and dedicated on May 30, 1895. The monument consists of a metal soldier standing atop a granite base.

Notable interments

John Appleton John Appleton (February 11, 1815 – August 22, 1864) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the United States' first ''chargé d'affaires'' to Bolivia, and later as special envoy to Great Britain and Russia. Born i ...

, congressman and assistant secretary of state * James Phinney Baxter, businessman and Mayor of Portland *

Carroll Lynwood Beedy Carroll Lynwood Beedy (August 3, 1880 – August 30, 1947) was a U.S. Representative from Maine from 1921 to 1935. He was born in Phillips, Franklin County, Maine, on August 3, 1880. He attended the public schools of Lewiston, Androscoggin ...

, congressman * Hugh J. Chisholm, paper magnate * Asa William Henry Clapp, congressman * Nathan Clifford, US Attorney General and Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court * Lydia Neal Dennett, abolitionist and suffragist *

Neal Dow Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a Quaker family in Portland, Maine. From a young age, h ...

, 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 Samuel Clement Fessenden (March 7, 1815 – April 18, 1882) was an American abolitionist and United States Congressman from Maine. __NOTOC__ Early life and education Born in New Gloucester, Massachusetts (now in Maine), Samuel Fessenden gra ...

, congressman * Thomas Amory Deblois Fessenden, congressman *

William P. Fessenden William Pitt Fessenden (October 16, 1806September 8, 1869) was an American politician from the U.S. state of Maine. Fessenden was a Whig (later a Republican) and member of the Fessenden political family. He served in the United States House ...

, congressman, senator and secretary of the treasury *

Frank Fixaris Frank Fixaris (May 6, 1934 in Torrington, Connecticut – January 13, 2006 in Falmouth, Maine) was an American sportscaster, anchor, reporter, and disc jockey, spending the majority of his career at WGME-TVbr>in Portland, Maine, Portland, Maine ...

, sportscaster *

Elbridge Gerry Elbridge Gerry (; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death in 1 ...

, congressman * Charles Goddard (1879-1951), playwright and screenwriter * Robert Christian Hale, lieutenant and congressman * Obed Hall, congressman * Asher Crosby Hinds, congressman *

Charles Thornton Libby Charles Thornton Libby (September 28, 1861 – May 23, 1948) was an American author, genealogist, historian and lawyer. He wrote five known books: ''The Libby Family in America, 1602–1881'' (1882), ''Cash, Panics and Industrial Depressions'' (1 ...

, 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 John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine ...

, architect * Lorenzo De Medici Sweat, congressman *

Henry Goddard Thomas Henry Goddard Thomas (April 5, 1837 – January 23, 1897) was a Union Army general during the American Civil War. Early years A native of Portland, Maine, Thomas graduated from Amherst College in 1858 and was admitted to the bar shortly there ...

, general *

William W. Thomas Jr. William Widgery Thomas Jr. (August 26, 1839 – April 25, 1927) was an American politician from Maine. Background He was born in Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, the son of William Widgery Thomas and Elizabeth White (Goddard) Thomas. ...

, Politician * Charles W. Walton, congressman

Gallery

File:Civil War memorial, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland Maine.jpg, Civil War Memorial File:Wilde Memorial Chapel.jpg, The Wilde Memorial Chapel at Evergreen Cemetery File:Baxter Monument - Evergreen Cemetery.JPG, The Baxter Family Monument in Evergreen Cemetery

Notes

External links

Evergreen Cemetery page on ''Find a Grave''

Friends of Evergreen Cemetery

Portland Trails - Evergreen Cemetery
{{Portal bar, Maine, Architecture, History Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Cemeteries in Portland, Maine 1855 establishments in Maine Westbrook, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Maine Rural cemeteries