Peter Monro of the Stewards of the Western Cemetery gives a tour of the cemetery in 2022. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Stewards of the Western Cemetery in Portland’s West End invite the public to go on a guided tour every Sunday at 2 p.m. through October.
Tours are free and signup is available at westerncemetery.me/visit-tour.
Attendees should assemble at the Davies Gate on Vaughan Street.
The tour guide will talk about the cemetery’s history and will point out specific grave sites of note, including Massachusetts Sen. Prentiss Mellen who eventually became Maine first’s Supreme Court chief justice.
When Portland’s East End Cemetery started to run out of space in the late 1700s, the city searched for an expansion site. It took until 1829 to settle on, and purchase, the large swath of land owned by the Vaughan family.
Western Cemetery opened in 1830, and for a few decades, it was the primary place for Portlanders to be buried.
Burials stopped happening at Western Cemetery by 1888.
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