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Evening Tours: Walk Among the Shadows Returns

October 28, 29, & 30
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Walk Among the Shadows is Back! A series of young costumed actors will perform vignettes based on lives of the interred under the dusk of a setting sun. Make a reservation via phone or email. First-come, first-served! 10-12 people per tour, $10 per person ($5 for children 12 and under), every 10 minutes. Tours will be canceled in case of rain. Read a story about the Spirits Alive evening tours 2007.

Leave a message with your reservation request: 207-318-2982
Email: leana@spiritsalive.org

Dig the Eastern Cemetery?

October 17, 2009
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Come on out and move some dirt! Volunteer part or all of your Saturday morning trimming, pruning, cleaning or tidying the grounds. Under the direction of Barry, Deb, and Kathleen, gardeners will learn to perform maintenance tasks while carefully working around the historic stones. We have a good time and sometimes even break a sweat! Drinks are provided courtesy of Amatos and Shipyard Brewing. Remeber to park off of Congress Street in deference to our retail neighbors!

Stoner Saturdays

October Saturdays
9:00AM – 12:00PM

Weather permitting. Stoners, those who help on our stone transcription project of transcribing the thousands of stones in the cemetery, are offering trainings on Saturday mornings. If you have an eye for detail and love filling out forms or playing detective on the whereabouts and inscriptions on old grave markers, we're looking for your help! Check our schedule.

Email us if you're interested in attending, or just show up! If you're available during the week, let us know.

Subterranean Celebrity: Bartlett Adams

gravestone

Who is buried in the Eastern Cemetery?

Though we know that the gravestones on our site are carved by hundreds of stone masons, it is rare to know their names. As in any trade or art, some were more skilled than others. One of the most skilled carvers of stones in the Eastern Cemetery was Bartlett Adams (d. 1828). Trained in Massachusetts by his brother-in-law, he made his way to Portsmouth advertising his skill and a "flock of Italian marble and Quincy slate stone" in his possession. After his brief time there, he settled in Portland with his wife Charlotte (whom rests with him in a tomb near Funeral Lane). Atleast 6 slate stones in the Eastern Cemetery can be attributed to his work other than those of his own 3 children. The stone for his son Bartlett is the most beautiful of these with an Adams coat of arms at the top and the inscription, "Betwixt his birth and death HOW SHORT THE SPACE." This would be an appropriate inscription for the stone of anyone who is laid to rest — no matter what age, but little Bartlett was only 5 months old. What sorrow hath he who carves a gravestone for his own blood.

Become a Spirits Alive Friend Today

Help Spirits Alive keep the Eastern Cemetery alive for generations to come and join as a Friend. For only $25 a year ($40 for families, $15 for students or elders), you can help:

Join us as a friend today!

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