Tours
Our regularly scheduled tours will begin again in early summer 2012. If you wish to schedule a special tour for your group, please contact us today!
Walk Among the Shadows
October
First-come, first-served
In cooperation with Portland Playback & Acorn Productions
Our annual fundraiser encourages attendees to feel the presence of those buried within on an evening tour of a spooky colonial graveyard. These family-friendly tours are led by shrouded specters through the cemetery in groups. Tours depart about every 15 minutes and last up to 1 hour. The group stops at various points along Funeral Lane to hear the cemetery residents come to life and voice their strange tales against the eerie, dimly-lit, gravestone-filled background.
Seasonal History Tours
Sundays
This tour will take you through the 6-acre site while a guide explains the history of the grounds, those buried within, the types of stones and an overview of how the site fits into the history of Portland.
- Meet at the Congress Street gate at 1:15pm. Guides will leave the site if nobody arrives by 1:40pm.
- Tickets are $7, students and elders (62 and up) $4, children under 12 are free (please have correct change or a check as guides will not have change). Feel free to donate your change to Spirits Alive!
- Tours last about 1 to 1.5 hours.
- Wear appropriate layers — the wind is always a bit stronger on the hill! The terrain is uneven. There is very little protection from the sun.
- Tours may be canceled because of rain.
- Our guides are volunteers! All funds raised go to Spirits Alive to help them maintain the Eastern Cemetery grounds.
Special
Email us to inquire about special tours for your group! We can tailor the tour to fit the interests of those who wish to attend. Here is a sampling of past special tours we have conducted:
Art & the Elements
This is a fascinating introduction to the geology of the Eastern Cemetery, including markers and monuments; a brief introduction to early mortuary art (as seen on the stones), and the effects of the environment on the site.
Greater Portland Chapter of Maine Genealogical Society
Stone Transcription Project members trained members and friends of The Greater Portland Chapter of Maine Genealogical Society on how to transcribe information from stones, then the group enjoyed a tour of the grounds.
Association for Gravestone Studies
This year, the 2011 meeting of the Association for Gravestone Studies happened in Waterville, Maine. As a bonus to AGS attendees, Spirits Alive offered a special tour of the cemetery grounds with an emphasis on the stones.
Portland Trails Discovery Trek
Portland Trails hosts a group of guided walks as part of their annual Discovery Trek series. Spirits Alive proudly offered a guided walk through the cemetery.
Mercy Book Signing
We conducted a special tour highlighting several teen girls who are buried in the cemetery. The book, Mercy, was written about a girl who finds out about a terrible happening because of a gravestone she discovered in her own New England town's cemetery.