Mount Calvary Cemetery in the West Hills of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

is a private

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 buri ...

owned and maintained by the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (''Archidioecesis Portlandensis in Oregonia'') is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It encompasses the western part of the state of Oregon, from the s ...

. It is the second-oldest Catholic cemetery in

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...

, and was the third cemetery built in the West Hills.

History

In 1858, the Portland Archdiocese established its first cemetery, St. Mary's Cemetery, in Southeast Portland adjacent to

Lone Fir Cemetery Lone Fir Cemetery in the southeast section of Portland, Oregon, United States is a cemetery owned and maintained by Metro, a regional government entity. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first burial was in 1846 with the cem ...

. By the late 1800s, that site was becoming full and a new site was needed. In 1888, the Archdiocese purchased in the West Hills and established Mount Calvary Cemetery. In 1930, St. Mary's was closed and the interments were relocated, mostly to Mount Calvary, and Central Catholic High School was built on the site of the old cemetery. In 1961, the Archdiocese opened a second cemetery in the Portland area, Gethsemani Catholic Cemetery, located in Happy Valley.

Facilities

From its location in the West Hills, Mount Calvary has views of Portland and the surrounding mountains in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

, as well as the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. In addition to more than 20,000 graves, the site contains a

mausoleum 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 ...

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 ...

, and a hilltop altar for the celebration of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

Notable burials

The cemetery is the final resting place for several archbishops of Portland as well as politicians, businessmen, actors, and sports figures. * James M. Burns (1924-2001), federal judge *

Nonpareil Dempsey John Edward Kelly (December 15, 1862 – November 1, 1895) was an Irish-American boxer, better known as Nonpareil Jack Dempsey, who was the first holder of the World Middleweight Championship (1884–1891). He was nicknamed "Nonpareil" because ...

(1862–1895), boxing champion * Christopher Evans (1847–1917), outlaw * John M. Gearin (1851–1930), U.S. Representative from Oregon * Ben Holladay (1819–1887), 19th century transportation businessman known as the "Stagecoach King" * Edward Howard (1877–1983) archbishop of Portland and centenarian *

Larry Keating Lawrence Keating (June 13, 1899 – August 26, 1963) was an American actor best known for his roles as Harry Morton on ''The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show'', which he played from 1953 to 1958, and next-door neighbor Roger Addison on ''Miste ...

(1896–1963), actor *

Frank Leahy Francis William Leahy (August 27, 1908 – June 21, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He served as the head football coach at Boston College from 1939 to 1940 and at ...

(1908–1973), college football coach at Notre Dame *

Richard Hedlund Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

(1928-2019), “Portland’s mortician” *

Hall S. Lusk Hall Stoner Lusk (September 21, 1883 – May 15, 1983) was an American jurist in the state of Oregon. A native of the District of Columbia, he became a judge in Oregon, serving in both the Oregon circuit courts and later on the Oregon Supreme C ...

(1883–1983), Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and U.S. Senator from Oregon *

Cornelius Michael Power Cornelius Michael Power (December 18, 1913 – May 22, 1997) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon from 1974 to 1986. He previously served as bishop of the Dioces ...

(1913–1997) archbishop of Portland *

George Shaw George Shaw may refer to: * George Shaw (biologist) (1751–1813), English botanist and zoologist * George B. Shaw (1854–1894), U.S. Representative from Wisconsin * George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Irish playwright * George C. Shaw (1866–196 ...

(1933–1998), American football player File:John M. Gearin.jpg, John M. Gearin File:Hall Stoner Lusk.jpg,

References

{{Reflist

External links

Mount Calvary Cemetery
at

Find a Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...

Cemeteries in Portland, Oregon Roman Catholic cemeteries in the United States 1888 establishments in Oregon Northwest Portland, Oregon Southwest Portland, Oregon

History

Facilities

Notable burials

See also

References

External links