Help sought for new effort to rehabilitate Western Cemetery

By Peter Monro

Local group seeks volunteers to bolster a new effort to conserve and enhance Western Cemetery in collaboration with the City of Portland and its new Cemetery Superintendent, Mike Ciamaga.

You could help. Learn how to clean, repair, and re-set gravestones, many of which in the Western Cemetery are derelict or vandalized. Or you could help with social media or tours of this public burial ground, the second oldest in the city. Also sought is someone with a metal detector willing to walk the cemetery before any probing or digging begins.

A revived Stewards of the Western Cemetery with volunteers from the West End and Western Prom neighborhoods are leading these efforts on behalf of the twelve-acre cemetery located between Vaughan Street and the Western Promenade. Anyone with an interest in helping please contact StewardsWesternCemetery@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events at Western Cemetery

Two upcoming events will launch this revival of interest.  

At 3.pm. Saturday, May 7th, Peter Monro of May Street, the Stewards’ clerk, will lead a 75-minute walk entitled, “The Past, Present and Future of Portland’s Western Cemetery.”

Monro will discuss rehabilitation plans and answer questions. Why do people believe a witch is buried there? What happened to Longfellow’s parents? Among the 6,000 burials, who is the most celebrated? Why are the paths and trees special? How was heralded architect John Calvin Stevens involved? And why do officials from Ireland visit?

The second event will occur in the week of July 4th. A professional conservator, Joe Ferrannini of Hoosick Falls, New York, the owner of Grave Stone Matters. Ferrannini will start repairs to dilapidated stones. He will work with volunteers at Western Cemetery on Thursday through Saturday, July 7th to 9th. Also, on the two previous days he will be repairing stones in Portland’s Eastern Cemetery. In fact, volunteers have been carrying out gravestone repairs in the Eastern Cemetery for more than ten years.

Conservation Efforts

Monro and the Stewards treasurer, Sam Wilson, spent much of last summer and fall learning to clean and conserve gravestones. Thanks to help from conservators with Spirits Alive, the group overseeing the Eastern Cemetery. They will help lead repair and restoration efforts.  

Stewards spent the winter preparing for this important rehabilitation effort. John Folk, a just retired lawyer and the Stewards’ president, successfully applied for the organization’s 501(c)3 status. Now, the Stewards are a nonprofit and authorized to receive charitable donations which are tax-deductible. The group is also now eligible to receive grants.

Those who wish to make donations can send checks to:

Stewards of Western Cemetery
622 Congress Street STE 9998 # 5267
Portland, ME 04101-3368

Seeking Recognition

Also this winter, Monro carried out preliminary research on the cemetery’s history. He wants to underpin tours but also to support a nomination for the Western Cemetery to be listed in its own right on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the Register lists it as part of the Western Promenade Historic District. However, this district consists mostly of the adjacent, large nineteenth and twentieth century residences.

Late in April, the Maine State Historic Preservation Commission determined that Western Cemetery is indeed eligible for nomination to the National Register. Thus, nomination to the National Park Service will occur if the City of Portland supports the nomination.   

Meanwhile, Derek O’Brien of Danforth Street, Steward vice president, has regularly been photographing in and around the cemetery.

Cleaning and repairs require water and tool storage in the cemetery. So, an extension of a water line has been discussed with the city. The form, size, and site of a tool house like one in the cemetery in the 1800s was discussed with the Board of Historic Preservation in March. Additionally, Carol deTine of Carriage House Architects is preparing sketch plans of the tool house for cost estimating and funding.  

Stewards of the Western Cemetery

In 2004 former city mayor Anne Pringle, Monro, and Andres Versoza founded the Stewards. Versoza now oversees two historic cemeteries in New Britain, Connecticut. The Stewards arose after the banning of dogs and the adopting of a cemetery Master Plan in 2001. In the following decade, the group repaired erosion, helped the city remove unwanted vegetation, and helped pay for the new steel picket fence along Vaughan Street.

The Stewards’ goals now are to clean and repair gravestones. Also, to make the Western Cemetery easier to walk through and around, safer, and more attractive as a cemetery and as a public open space. The increased use of the cemetery in the past two years for walking, outdoor classes, resting, relaxing with friends, and visiting family burial plots makes this renewal effort especially timely.

Despite all you readers already do, we hope you’ll consider contributing your time, money, thought, or effort to this overdue and exciting collaborative effort with the city. So join us in our efforts to enhance this historic, park-like jewel. 

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Peter Monro, a West End resident, is a retired landscape architect. He has served as a member of the Portland Parks Commission and as board chair of Portland Trails.