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Hope Cemetery, established in 1852, is an historic rural cemetery owned by the City. Its landscaping and funerary art are exemplars of the rural cemetery movement inspired by romantic perceptions of nature, art and the themes of death; visitors can contemplate monuments and statues while strolling through a setting of fine trees and plantings.
Hope Cemetery replaced as many as six earlier burial grounds that were overwhelmed by the growing city. By the end of the century remains from Mechanic Street, Tatman and Pine Meadow cemeteries were reinterred at Hope, and in the 1960s graves were moved here from Worcester Common.
The cemetery occupies approximately 168 acres of rolling land between Kettle Brook to the south, Curtis Pond to the west, and Middle River to the north. In 1998 Hope Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. This recognition assists in the preservation of the cemetery as part of the city's great heritage.
For more information about Hope Cemetery, please visit the Friends of Hope Cemetery website.
This cemetery is located on 119 Webster Street, Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts.
Hope Cemetery is an historic rural cemetery at 119 Webster Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it was the city's sixth public cemetery, and is the burial site of remains originally interred at its first five cemeteries. Its landscaping and funerary art are exemplars of the rural cemetery movement, and the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The cemetery occupies 168 acres.
Hope Cemetery is located in far southern Worcester, atop a rise known as Webster Hill, which has commanding views to the north and east, including the campuses of Clark University and the College of the Holy Cross. The cemetery was laid out, probably by a landscape designer (although none has been identified), in the rural cemetery style, with winding lanes that take advantage of the terrain. It also includes horticultural plantings of note, another hallmark of the rural cemetery style, including several distinguished specimens of beech, Norway maple, sugar maple, cedar, ash, and oak trees.
Worcester's first burying ground was located at Thomas and Summer Streets, and was established in 1713, and had seventeen graves marked by stone mounds, and the second burying ground, located on the Worcester Common, had more than 100 burials, all of which were relocated here in the 20th century. The third burying ground, Raccoon Plain, was a small cemetery with sixteen burials, all of which were reinterred here in 1857. The fourth burying ground, at Mechanic Street, had more than 1000 burials, which were moved here in 1878–79. The Pine Meadow Burying Ground's 658 interments were relocated here between 1862 and 1878.
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