Evergreen Cemetery is a garden-stylecemetery on Stevens Avenue in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, Maine. With 239 acres (97 ha) of land, it is the largest cemetery in the state.[2] 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 140-acre (57 ha) historical portion of the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.[1]
History
The cemetery was established in 1855 in Saccarappa (Westbrook) and became the area's main cemetery after the Western Cemetery in downtown Portland. The original parcel appears to have been about 45 acres (18 ha), which was repeatedly enlarged beginning about 1869.[3] As of March 2011, only 110 acres (45 ha) were used for cemetery-related activities.[4] 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, which will hold cremated remains above ground. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people are interred in the cemetery.[5]
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, France.[3]
Wilde Memorial Chapel
Wilde Memorial Chapel is a Gothic-style chapel. It was built as a mortuary chapel 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.[6] The granite building is used for both memorial and wedding services, with a maximum capacity of 105.[7]
Civil War veterans
Evergreen Cemetery contains the remains of about 1,400 veterans of the American Civil War.[8] A memorial to Civil War veterans was donated by brothers Henry (then Governor of Maine) and Judge Nathan Cleaves and dedicated on May 30, 1895.[8] The monument consists of a metal soldier standing atop a granite base.
Notable interments
John Appleton, congressman and assistant secretary of state
