Hope Cemetery is located on Maple Avenue in Barre, Vermont. It is famous for the beautiful and unusual memorials, gravestones, monuments and mausoleums carved by the artists who worked for the granite quarries. Many of these artisans were Italian immigrants. It seems they were almost competing with each other for the most beautiful and most unique gravestones. Many of the artists carved their own stones ahead of time, in preparation for their own funerals.
The cemetery is a great tourist attraction, and there are guided tours, cell phone tours, and all sorts of printed guides to the cemetery. We decided to just wander through and take photos of a few of the monuments that caught our eye...
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| This one was extremely odd... the figure of a woman in the smoke of his cigar? |
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| The little red convertible is visible in the window of this mauseoleum |
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| There were many lines of scripture on each face of these pyramid shaped memorials |
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| I thought the artist must have had a lot of skill to carve this chain, all the children's names are on the links |
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| This one was poignant, with the two figures in their pajamas... |
A guide and map of Hope Cemetery http://www.central-vt.com/web/hope/
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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
WOW! I have never heard of this cemetery before and I have never seen a cemetery with so many unusual headstones. Thanks very much for sharing this! This is definitely going to be one of the items in this coming Saturday's Serendipity list. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJohn, we were there a few weeks ago, and I posted it now thinking that some taphophiles might want to plan a fall foliage tour that passes nearby Hope Cemetery. It is definitely worth the trip!
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