Evergreen Cemetery, Portland Maine

Evergreen Cemetery, located in the Deering neighborhood of Portland, is one of the most significant of its type in Maine. This stems not only from its design, which exhibits elements of the nineteenth-century Rural and Lawn Cemetery concepts, but also from the quality and range of its funerary monuments. Initially developed in 1854-55, the cemetery continued to expand and evolve well into the twentieth century. Today it embraces over 300 acres.

Efforts to develop a new cemetery for mid-nineteenth-century Portland are reported to have been guided by Sylvester B. Beckett (1812-82), a local newspaper reporter, attorney, and politician. As early as 1850 he had been investigating sites in the area, and wrote in an October diary entry that "I have been examining the woods of Mr. Buckley, at Stevens' Plains, with a view of endeavoring to prevail upon the city authorities to purchase the place for a burying-ground" (Maine Press Association Proceedings). Beckett succeeded in his initiative, and on February 28^th, 1852, the city acquired three contiguous parcels of land, including a narrow passageway, totaling fifty-five acres. This forms the core of the present cemetery.

The process whereby the newly acquired property, which was subsequently described (Elwell) as chiefly covered with evergreens, hence the name, was laid out is not entirely certain at this point. For example, it is not clear what role Beckett played, or who was most responsible for the overall design concept. Nonetheless, it is very likely that previously designed Rural Cemeteries such as Mt. Auburn in Cambridge (1831), and perhaps even Bangor's Mt. Hope Cemetery (1834-36) served as general models. This shared genealogy is readily apparent on-site, but especially when Evergreen Cemetery is studied in its entirety by way of two plans published, respectively, in 1855 and 1869, which show the circulation system, road and path names, and naturalistic features.

Although small strips of land adjacent to the original tract had been acquired in the late 1850s, it was not until 1869 that the city began to acquire significant parcels to accommodate future expansion. At this time seven different lots containing about sixty-seven acres were added to the cemetery. Subsequent major purchases were made in 1871, 1876, 1880, and 1883. In addition, between 1890 and 1929 all but two of the house lots along Stevens Avenue were obtained and the dwellings on them razed.

Plans for the subdivision of new additions to the cemetery were being prepared by the city's civil engineer as early as 1870. In 1872, for example, the Report of the City Civil Engineer made reference to the survey of the Libby Estate, a fifty-five-acre tract acquired in November of 1871. This particular area, which constitutes the southwestern projection of the cemetery, seems to have been fully designed in 1892, and with only minor revisions exists as planned today. In terms of design significance, however, the most important area laid out after the original is the section south of Garden Avenue to Woodlawn. The first plans for the sections immediately adjacent to Garden Avenue were developed by city engineer Charles R. Goodell in 1878. With the further acquisition of adjoining parcels in 1881, and designs developed in 1883, the present configuration appears to have been largely devised. Despite the separate periods of their design, the whole section is relatively uniform in its grid-like character, an aspect quite different from the far more curvilinear nature of the original section.

Of equal if not more significance, however, is the overall concept of cemetery design which is evident in the newer section. Reflecting the changing trend in the design of such landscapes, this area embraces, with a few exceptions, the idea of the Lawn Cemetery in which a uniform grass surface becomes the common base upon which monuments are erected. This was a marked change from the raised plots of the earlier Rural section that are frequently delineated by granite curbing. It is precisely this change to which the February 1900 Portland Board of Trade Journal referred when it called Evergreen Cemetery an " … old style burying ground in course of transition to the modern cemetery."

The 1855 plan of the cemetery, prepared by the city civil engineer Charles H. Howe, indicates the presence, or perhaps projects the plan for, an office building, keeper's lodge, receiving tomb, and a chapel. As indicated in the 1857-58 City Auditor's Report $124.21 was spent on the construction of a tool house. Another $228.02 was expended the following year on the tool house and office. There is no record of the construction of a keeper's lodge or chapel, but the receiving tomb was built in 1861-62 by J. T. Emery. The next significant building, the present office, was added in 1893. This stone and frame building originally had an engaged porch and corner tower, but these were lost in a 1961 fire and subsequent remodeling. In 1902, Wilde Memorial Chapel was erected near the south entrance as a gift to the community by the Wilde family. Designed by Portland architect Frederick A. Tompson, this gothic-style granite building stands amidst a curvilinear pattern of roads which were laid out in 1896. The main entrance to the cemetery is made through a series of four granite gateposts framing the drive and flanking sidewalks. They were erected here in 1891 in place of the originals. In 1901, the southern entrance was improved with the existing blue lead stone gateposts and wall designed by architect Tompson.

He also designed a stone waiting room whose hip roof embraced a piazza extending around three sides. It too was built in 1901, but has since been removed.

In addition to the major buildings, the cemetery contains a number of important tombs and other monuments. Among the most notable are the C. 1860 Egyptian Revival style tomb of F.O.J. Smith; the eclectic Clapp Tomb of 1892 designed by Francis H. and Edward F. Fassett; the vaguely Egyptian styled Davis family mausoleum by architect William Laurence Bottomly; the row of quarry-faced granite tombs which are set into the hillside overlooking the ponds, and the life-size figure of J.S. Winslow. The most significant piece of funerary architecture, however, is the Chisholm Tomb built in 1913. Although its architect remains to be identified, this superb building is a copy of the Maison Carree in Nimes, France which was, in turn, modeled on the Parthenon. Unfortunately, little is known about the history of the many other major monuments in the cemetery. Further research may, it is hoped, reveal more about them. Nonetheless, when studied as a group, the entire collection of funerary architecture located here represents the State's most diverse and important resource of the type.

The design of Evergreen Cemetery, as well as the precepts on which it was founded, are closely associated with the concepts which characterize the nineteenth century Rural Cemetery. While the general naturalistic design features common to such landscapes have been described above, a number of additional points, both similar and dissimilar, should be noted here. One of the most important of these is the fact that such cemeteries, beginning with Mt. Auburn, have a social as opposed to a religious emphasis. Thus, rather than providing the burial grounds for a particular religious denomination, such cemeteries were open to all who could and wished to purchase lots. A further illustration of this point is the large number of re-internments made at Evergreen Cemetery from older existing burial grounds. One striking example of this process was the relocation of the F.O.J. Smith Tomb sometime after 1876 from its original location on a nearby private estate.

A second point of comparison between the early Rural Cemeteries and Evergreen, is their planned recreational aspect. By the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the Nation's old urban centers were faced with a critical shortage of space in their burying grounds. The need for additional space was accompanied by a changing attitude toward death that is poignantly evident in the style of funerary art. Eighteenth century death's head images and blunt epitaphs had given way to what one author has interpreted as "softer-seeming white marble" with "more cheerful, more restrained" epitaphs (Gillon). The dramatic increase in the scale and elaborateness of these monuments was facilitated by the spaciousness of the new burying grounds.

Add to these factors the growing realization of the need to provide a naturalistic retreat from the rigors of urban life, and one finds in the Rural Cemetery concept a significant multi-purpose landscape. The recreational aspect of such cemeteries is well established. Illustrated nineteenth century guidebooks to Portland, for example, contain numerous woodcut engravings of Evergreen Cemetery and lengthy descriptions including the following:

Not insignificantly, the horse railroad (followed by the trolley) was extended through Stevens Avenue, and waiting shelters were subsequently erected by the cemetery at its two principal entrances. Thus, Evergreen Cemetery was, in its own particular fashion, an alternative to the existing public parks in Portland.

One aspect of the Rural Cemetery concept that Evergreen did not share with its predecessors was the horticultural function. Both Mt. Auburn and Mt. Hope, for example, initially had a direct affiliation with local horticultural societies. Although the beauty of Evergreen was certainly due, in part, to the introduction of various flora, it was not the outdoor horticultural display area that characterized many other Rural Cemeteries.

Site Description

Evergreen Cemetery is an area of some 300 acres located in the Deering neighborhood of Portland. It is the largest cemetery in the State and the most extensive, though not the earliest, nineteenth-century Rural Cemetery. The area contains an extensive collection of architecturally and artistically significant funerary monuments set amidst curvilinear drives, trees, and varied topography.

The initial development of the cemetery appears to have been carried out in 1854-55 in an area of fifty-five acres. Located over 600 feet behind a row of substantial dwellings lining Stevens Avenue, this original parcel was accessed by a straight road bisecting two of the houses. Pyramidal gateposts marked the entrance, the drive and sidewalks behind which were bordered by shade trees and arbor vitae hedges. The existing granite gateposts are later nineteenth century replacements of the originals, and although a number of trees still exist, the hedges are gone. Thus, the almost overgrown nineteenth century appearance of this drive as seen in historic photographs no longer exists. Furthermore, by virtue of the city's subsequent acquisition and demolition of the adjoining houses early this century, the entrance drive is now framed by lawns.

Upon entering the burial grounds, the drive opens into an intersection of four curvilinear avenues, three of which are principal circulation routes. Additional avenues branch off from these in an interconnecting naturalistic pattern. A further subdivision of the access system is made through the use of narrow footpaths named for tree species such as Oak Path or Magnolia Path. There are a number of other designed elements which are integral to the original concept of the cemetery. For example, the south central area of the 1854-55 section contains two circular features of unequal size linked by two avenues. The burial area within this loop is subdivided by a series of yoke-shaped paths. Evergreen Circle, the larger of the two features, is also the focus of a semi-circular pattern of lots which fan out to the northeast. The second series of designed features are the four ponds located at the northwestern boundary. They are organized in a pattern of three basically rectangular ponds separated and framed by intervening avenues, and a fourth, much larger pond without access on two sides. Historically, these ponds were the setting for a variety of rustic structures including bridges and shelters, and were home to various waterfowl. This latter function continues today.

The naturalistic circulation pattern established in the original section of the cemetery was not continued in the expansion which took place beginning in the 1870s. Bordering the southerly boundary of the original area, this later development can be generally characterized as more grid-like in its organization. There are important exceptions, however. Chief among these are the five additional circular features located throughout the plan; the curvilinear road pattern at the south entrance which embraces the 1902 Wilde Chapel; the asymmetrical pattern around the Chisholm Tomb; and the three gently curving avenues at the southwestern boundary.

In addition to the organizational variations between the two areas noted above, there is also a significant difference evident in the concept of delineating burial plots. It reflects, in fact, the transition in cemetery design away from the Rural Cemetery to that of the Lawn Cemetery. This change is conspicuously evident in that a large percentage of the older lots are slightly elevated above the nearby avenues and frequently bordered by granite curbing. While few of these are further enclosed with fencing, many are reached by a short flight of granite steps. In contrast, the plots in the newer section are only rarely distinguished in this fashion and the monuments rise from a uniform lawn surface.

Throughout the cemetery, but principally concentrated in the later nineteenth century development, are a number of important examples of funerary monuments and tombs. They range from elaborate gothic-style structures to highly refined classical designs. The cemetery contains the State's most significant example of the Egyptian Revival in the F.O.J. Smith Tomb, a fortress-like row of granite tombs which overlook the ponds, and a life-size figure in granite of J.S. Winslow, one of only a handful of such monuments of the type known to exist in Maine. One of the most striking mausoleums in the State, the 1913 Chisholm Tomb, is located in Evergreen Cemetery. Although its architect is yet to be identified, this exquisite building is a copy of the Maison Carree in Nimes, France, itself modeled on the Parthenon. Only two bronze statues exist in the cemetery today. One is the classically robed figure of a seated woman in mourning at the Wescott family plot. The other is that of an elk, placed here about twenty years ago by the Fraternal Order of Elks.

The cemetery also contains three buildings: the 1893 office, an early twentieth century garage, and the 1902 Wilde Memorial Chapel. The office, which is constructed of quarry faced Ashlar masonry, originally featured a side gable roof which engaged a front porch and corner tower. However, this building burned in 1961 and was substantially remodeled as a result. Further changes were made in 1982 when the present gable roof was installed. Located to the rear of the office is the frame gable roof garage. It is sheathed in weatherboards. Situated in the southern corner of the cemetery at one of the secondary entrances is the chapel. Built in 1902 from plans drawn by Portland architect Frederick A. Tompson, the granite building reflects the character of an English gothic chapel. Its facade is fronted by a crennelated porte-cochere and rises to a centrally-placed bell-cote. The corners and side elevations feature buttresses separating the arched windows. A small chancel is located at the southwest corner. In addition to these buildings, the blue lead stone south entry gates and flanking stone walls are a significant feature of the cemetery. They were also designed by Tompson and installed in 1901 when this approach was redesigned and a waiting room for trolley passengers built (the waiting room was subsequently demolished).