Mount Hope Cemetery

Mount Hope Cemetery stands among the earliest American garden cemeteries, established in 1836 just three years after Mount Auburn Cemetery launched the rural cemetery movement. Located on roughly 300 acres on the north bank of the Penobscot River about two miles northeast of the Kenduskeag Stream, the grounds were designed by noted Bangor architect Charles G. Bryant following the romantic landscape principles that sought natural beauty as counterbalance to urban life. The cemetery embraces two distinct organizations: city-owned territory for public use and corporation-managed grounds for members, though they operate as an integrated whole. Since its consecration on July 21, 1836, over thirty thousand individuals have found final rest here.

The cemetery's origins trace to 1834 when the Bangor Horticultural Society formed to purchase half of Joseph Treat's 100-acre lot on the city's outskirts. When the Society failed to fulfill its responsibilities, the Mount Hope Cemetery Corporation superseded it in September 1834 and implemented Bryant's plan, which deliberately divided the land between burial grounds and horticultural purposes. This dual-purpose design reflected the rural cemetery movement's philosophy of creating spaces "for the living as well as the dead."

The cemetery maintains active operations today from its 1048 State Street office, offering earth burial, cremation interment, mausoleum entombment, and scattering garden options with transparent published pricing.