Hope Cemetery is an historic

rural cemetery A rural cemetery or garden cemetery is a style of cemetery that became popular in the United States and Europe in the mid-nineteenth century due to the overcrowding and health concerns of urban cemeteries. They were typically built one to five ...

at 119 Webster Street in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. Established in 1854, it was the city's sixth public cemetery, and is the burial site of remains originally interred at its first five cemeteries. Its landscaping and funerary art are examplars of the rural cemetery movement, and 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 v ...

in 1997. The cemetery occupies .

Description and history

Hope Cemetery is located in far southern Worcester, atop a rise known as Webster Hill, which has commanding views to the north and east, including the campuses of

Clark University Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...

and Holy Cross College. The cemetery was laid out, probably by a landscape designer (although none has been identified), in the rural cemetery style, with winding lanes that take advantage of the terrain. It also includes horticultural plantings of note, another hallmark of the rural cemetery style, including several distinguished specimens of beech, Norway maple, sugar maple, cedar, ash, and oak trees. Worcester's first burying ground was located at Thomas and Summer Streets, and was established in 1713, and had seventeen graves marked by stone mounds, and the second burying ground, located on the Worcester Common, had more than 100 burials, all of which were relocated here in the 20th century. The third burying ground, Raccoon Plain, was a small cemetery with sixteen burials, all of which were reinterred here in 1857. The fourth burying ground, at Mechanic Street, had more than 1000 burials, which were moved here in 1878–79. The Pine Meadow Burying Ground's 658 interments were relocated here between 1862 and 1878.

Notable interments

* Agnes Ballard, architect, educator, one of the first women elected to office in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American people, American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the N ...

, poet *

Loring Coes Loring Coes (April 22, 1812 – July 13, 1906) was an American inventor, industrialist and Republican politician who invented the screw type wrench, commonly known as the monkey wrench and who served as a member of the Worcester, Massachusetts Ci ...

, inventor of the

Monkey wrench The monkey wrench is a type of adjustable wrench, a 19th century American refinement of 18th-century English coach wrenches. It was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It is of interest as an antique among tool collectors and is sti ...

Abby Kelley Foster Abby Kelley Foster (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Sl ...

, 19th century social reformer and feminist *

Stephen Symonds Foster Stephen Symonds Foster (November 17, 1809 – September 13, 1881) was a radical American abolitionist known for his dramatic and aggressive style of public speaking, and for his stance against those in the church who failed to fight slavery. His ma ...

, radical

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

Robert Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard successfully laun ...

, engineer, inventor of the first liquid-fueled

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

* John Bartholomew Gough, temperance lecturer *

Iver Johnson Iver Johnson was an American firearms, bicycle, and motorcycle manufacturer from 1871 to 1993. The company shared the same name as its founder, Norwegian-born Iver Johnson (1841–1895). The name was resold, and Iver Johnson Arms opened i ...

, firearm, bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer *

Charles H. Pinkham Charles H. Pinkham (18 August 1844 – 6 November 1920) was born in Grafton, Massachusetts in 1844. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland presented him with the Medal of Honor for his service in the American Civil War. He is buried in Hope Cemetery, ...

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

recipient * Thomas Plunkett,

recipient * Capt. Peter Slater, youngest participant in the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...

, fought in the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

* Amy Tanner, psychologist at

Eli Thayer Eli Thayer (June 11, 1819 – April 15, 1899) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1857 to 1861. He was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1840, from Brown University in 1845, and in ...

, Congressman *

Webster Thayer Webster Thayer (July 7, 1857 – April 18, 1933) was a judge of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, best known as the trial judge in the Sacco and Vanzetti case. Background Thayer was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts, on July 7, 1857. He att ...

, trial judge in the

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

case

References

{{Authority control Cemeteries in Worcester, Massachusetts Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts 1854 establishments in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts Rural cemeteries

Description and history

Notable interments

See also

References