Come Inside the Gates with Us

Summer is almost over, but we’re not winding down. Stop by to explore, take a guided tour, or help us preserve this historic landscape. We’d be cheered to have you come to love this site as much as we do.

Walking Tours

Daily at 4pm
$10 per person

We are the only cemetery in Maine offering daily walking tours. Join us for an informative jaunt through the stones with a knowledgeable and trained volunteer guide. Tour groups are small, and there is plenty of time for questions.

Learn more: spiritsalive.org/tours

Special note: If you want to keep up to date on what’s going on with Spirits Alive and the cemetery at any time, our fearless leader, tour coordinator and president, Jeff keeps our Instagram feed alive all year long. Follow us on Instagram.

Stone Conservation

One More Saturday! August 29
8am–12pm, weather permitting

Our conservation crew, led by our trained volunteer and board member Adrian, has been hard at work this summer! Volunteers have cleaned dozens of gravestones, removed years of lichen buildup, and straightened several leaning monuments. They also welcomed professional conservator Joe Ferrannini of Grave Stone Matters for 3 days of hands-on conservation work, giving volunteers the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the field. The work continues for one more week, so there’s still time to help out!

Tell us to add you to our conservation list: easterncemetery@gmail.com. Adrian emails the group weekly to wrap up the last conservation day and update everyone on what is ahead.

Groundskeeping Days

Saturdays: September 12 & 26

8:30am–12pm

Join us for some general clean-up, a bit of shrubbery pruning, and the continued battle of the dreaded invasives—knotweed and bittersweet come to mind. We also plan to stabilize the cardboard we will put down in three family plots. This placement will help us prepare for trials of various grass seeds we will plant next spring—and if all goes well, maybe we'll start now?! Thank you for helping us care for this 6-acre wonder!

Ron Romano Receives Forbes Award

Ron Romano accepts his award with June Hadden Hobbs, AGS Awards Committee

We’re very proud to announce that Spirits Alive’s cemetery historian Ron Romano received the 2026 Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award from the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) at its annual conference in June. This is the organization’s highest honor and recognizes exceptional service in the field of gravestone studies.

Ron has spent years researching Maine and New England gravestones, stone carvers, cemetery landscapes, and the stories hidden in our old burying grounds. He has shared his work through books (now 5!), scholarly papers, lectures, and countless cemetery tours. His research has taken him from the work of Portland stonecutter Bartlett Adams, to the strange shape of billboard monuments, to mysterious carvings on old gravestones found beneath the dirt.

Ron joins a distinguished list of Forbes Award recipients that includes cemetery scholars Daniel Farber, Laurel Gabel, William Fred Oakley, Jr., and Vincent F. Luti, making this recognition especially meaningful. And you can hear Ron in person this year as he has hit the road with his newest book, Stories from Maine Cemeteries: Lives Cut Short, where he shares the fascinating—and sometimes surprising—stories that old gravestones have to tell. Congratulations, Ron!

Subterranean Celebrity: Joshua Shirley

As you wander the cemetery, prestigious titles like “Captain,” “Major,” or “Esquire” are commonly found on stones. Occupations were rarely carved alongside formal social titles.

Joshua Shirley made his way to Portland from Fryeburg where he was born on September 7, 1788. He became the junior editor of the Portland Gazette that he ran with his brother, Arthur. The occupation noted as “Printer” on his stone meant he was involved in the labor of typesetting and putting ink to paper.

He rests beneath a 24 x 36" slate stone carved (attributed to Bartlett Adams’ shop) with square shoulders, a rounded tympanum adorned with an urn and willow, and a columnar border.

In memory of

Mr. Joshua Shirley

Printer

who died

April 13, 1819:

aged 30.

Joshua’s life in Portland was brief. On September 3, 1815, he married Pamelia Platts Phillips. A veteran of the War of 1812, he served as a private in Capt. A. W. Atherton’s Company within the Lieutenant Colonel M. Nichols Regiment of the Maine Militia. In just a few years, he was dead.

Though the Gazette was printed weekly, the only time it was not printed that year was on his death day. In the next issue, on April 20, his brother posted a notice pledging to readers and advertisers that he was up to the job left open by his brother’s death. He also printed a short death notice, not with a cause, but with a sweet epitaph:

“Lord what is man! —the coyest, tenderest flow’r,
is not so subject to the least annoy;
A breeze can blast this blossom of an hour,
A sun beam blight it, or a frost destroy.”

Suggest your own subterranean celebrity! Just send an email—it doesn't take much (basic vitals, plot location, and or a photo) to make a nice little story. An index of all of our Subterranean Celebrities is available.

SA Swag

Guess what cemetery fan group has its own shirts, caps, playing cards, and tote bags? Spirits Alive does, that’s who! Visit us on Zazzle to view all of our products. Please know that proceeds go directly back to Spirits Alive to help us fund our work to keep the Eastern Cemetery cared for and to teach others about its wonders.

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

For 20 years, Spirits Alive, a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization, has been dedicated to the protection and preservation of Portland, Maine’s historic Eastern Cemetery through a range of activities including promotion and education.