Mount Moriah Cemetery Gatehouse, Philadelphia, PA
Photography from Wikimedia Commons

Lecture Series: The Arch Street Project

Saturday, January 28
1:30pm to 2:30pm
Zoom

Join us for our first offering in the Spirits Alive Winter Lecture 2023 series. “An Accounting of the Dead (The Arch Street Project)” will be presented by Dr. Nicholas Bonneau.

In 2016, developers in Philadelphia discovered their building site at 218 Arch Street was a cemetery thought to have been moved to the Mount Moriah Cemetery across town in 1860. Volunteers from the Arch Street Project have worked to understand not only why these interments were not moved, but also about the lives and deaths of these individuals.

Dr. Bonneau, the primary historian of the project, will take us through the history of this congregation and community of the dead (1709 to 1859) using techniques that combine the modern technologies of skeletal, DNA and isotopic analysis with related church documents to identify these individuals.

Please register only if you plan to log in at 1:30pm on Saturday, January 28 to allow seats for everyone. The presentation will not be recorded.

Bonneau presentation on Zoom

This is the first lecture of four. Learn about the others: 2023 Winter Lecture Series.

Dr. John Robbins portrayed by Daniel Gay during Walk Among the Shadows
Photograph by J. Alexander

We Dusted Ourselves Off in 2022

Since 2006, Spirits Alive has endeavored to keep this historic landscape, Eastern Cemetery in Portland, Maine, at the forefront of the minds of the community and its visitors. We highlight the lives of those who came before—who helped provide the shape of Portland today. We conserve and preserve the earth where they rest and the markers that help keep us interested in who they were and what their world was like. After slowing our events and activities for awhile, we are proud to say we’ve dusted off the mouldering remains of the past few years and had a strong 2022:

• Led by our 12 tour guides, over 1,100 visitors learned about the cemetery on walking tours including tourists and school students

• Held the 14th Walk Among the Shadows event on 8 evenings and welcomed over 1,000 guests, showcasing the creative talents of local playwrights and actors

• Offered gardening workdays to clean beds at the gates, prune, and pick up trash with more than 20 volunteers giving over 150 hours

• Conserved 46 cemetery markers and monuments with cleaning, resets and repairs due to the help of 15 volunteers on 17 different work days bringing our marker conservation total to up over 500

• Contracted with professional stone conservator Joe Ferrannini to repair larger stones requiring expert service

• Worked with the Western Cemetery group to clean, reset and repair the site’s markers and monuments

• Organized our 12th winter lecture series virtually and in-person with 3 presentations on Portland’s part in the triangle trade, the Irish in Maine, and Maine Charitable Mechanics history

• Promoted our events and opportunities through local channels in our community to keep everyone up to date

• Appreciated the help of community and business sponsors and donors near and far to fund our work on conserving stones

We look forward to an even better 2023 and hope to see you inside the gates when they open in the late spring. Please let us know if you’d like to get involved with us or have ideas you’d like to help get started.

Wanted: Volunteer Coordinator

Group of volunteer gardeners, 2007
Photograph by L. Good-Simpson

Do you like cemetery people (the ones above ground?) Are you a good communicator who enjoys lifting others up? Are you organized enough to wrangle people around a good cause? If so, consider volunteering to get involved in our efforts to embrace people and their skills to help us forward the mission of Eastern Cemetery.

It would involve working with us on the ongoing task of keeping people involved, coming up with new ideas to find more of them, putting out requests for help from them, and rewarding them for their kind and selfless work.

Just send an email if you think this is something you would enjoy totally or even in part. More fun in 2023!

Virtual Tour on Your Own

Screenshot from Stop 3 on the virtual tour web page

Spirits Alive developed a tour available to anyone to take at any time. Virtual Eastern Cemetery in 12 Stops allows you to visit even though the gates are closed!

Each stop includes a description, a photograph, and links to other resources. Join us when you have a moment for an easy breezy virtual walk around the site from the comfort of your own space wherever you are. Then, if you’re able, walk with us in person when the gates open again in the late spring!

Support Eastern Cemetery

You can help Spirits Alive keep the Eastern Cemetery alive for generations to come. Through your support, you can help us, an ALL-VOLUNTEER organization, to continue to:

• Keep the gates open – encouraging the community to explore its open and safe green space

• Offer education about the cemetery and its residents to the public – through tours, lectures, and events

• Encourage and support the city in keeping the site clean and safe for visitors of all ages

• Preserve this incredible outdoor museum and sacred historic landscape

Spirits Alive is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Portland, Maine’s historic Eastern Cemetery through a range of activities including promotion and education.