Mount Hope Cemetery (Bangor, Maine)

Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine, is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States. It was designed by architect Charles G. Bryant in 1834 and built by the Bangor Horticultural Society soon after, the same year that Bangor was incorporated as a city. The cemetery was modeled after Mt. Auburn Cemetery (1831) in Boston, Massachusetts. Bangor was at that time a frontier boom-town, and much of its architecture and landscaping was modeled after that of Boston. The site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Purchased in July 1834, the land consisted of 50 acres of Lot 27, which was set along State Street - at the time known as County Road and later the "Road to Orono" - and the Penobscot River. It did not include all of the cemetery's central hill; instead, it cut across the crest of the hill and met up with what would later be Mount Hope Avenue. The land was approximately 660 by 3,300 feet (200 by 1,010 m) with the longer side extending north-south along State Street. Approximately 12 acres was to be set aside for horticultural activities, and the rest of the land was to be used as a cemetery.

This was the preferred resting ground for Bangor's 19th- and early-20th-century elite. The cemetery includes the gravesites of Hannibal Hamlin, a U.S. Vice President who had also held office as Congressman, US Senator and Governor of Maine, a U.S. Senator, ten U.S. Congressmen, two U.S. Ambassadors, four Governors of Maine, eight Civil War Generals, and numerous "lumber barons" and other local businessmen and politicians. Actors Richard Golden and Ralph Sipperly are also buried there.