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Tis the season for stories with a spooky backdrop. Photo by D. Turicek
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Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays
October 18 to 20 & October 25 to 27
6:30PM to 7:30PM
Sundays
October 21 & October 28
5:30PM to 6:30PM
For 8 dark nights, 6 ghostly storytellers, some buried at Eastern Cemetery, will materialize inside the gates to tell their own scandalous stories.
Find out more about the event as well as how to get tickets.
It's the 350th birthday of the Old Burying Ground, and the Spirits are excited about the party they'll be going to at midnight! Invitations are for the dead only.
- John Neal was a boxer, novelist, gymnast, publisher, architect, quarry man, attorney, phrenologist, pro-feminist and America's first art critic.
- Kitty Kentuck, born Margaret Lanergan in Ireland, owned a tavern and brothel on Hancock Street from the 1840s until 1866. She and John Neal were business partners for a time.
- Peter Williams was a Belgium-born sailor, hanged in Auburn for mutiny and murder.
- Augustus King was a retired Portuguese sailor who ran a dance hall and brothel in Portland until 1849.
- Daniel Manley is known as “Portland’s First Bank Robber”. He robbed the Cumberland Bank in 1818.
- The “Spirit of the Burying Ground” is celebrating her “350th Birthday” and is in the mood to reminisce about the old days--before the Europeans came.
The event is written and directed by Lynne Cullen and performed by a cast of local awesome professional actors. Your favorite Spirits Alive volunteers resurrect (see what we did there?) their roles as dark figures that take you down Funeral Lane by lamplight. If you have to wait outside the gates for your turn, you'll be delighted by Billy Hans, Julia Bragdon, and Emerald. Half of all proceeds are returned directly to the cemetery to fund conservation and education projects.
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Headstone of Daniel Manley, September 2018. Photo by Ben Gross
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A reprise of a past celebrity in celebration of Walk Among the Shadows
Portland's first bank robber was our Subterranean Celebrity in February 2014. We're bringing Daniel Manley back—not from the dead—he's still dead—for this volume of eNews to celebrate the fact that he's part of Walk Among the Shadows: Scandals, Scoundrels, and Sinners this year.
If you want to read even more, Ron Romano profiled Manley in his 2017 book, Portland's Historic Eastern Cemetery: A Field of Ancient Graves (check the post below for more info). There's also a very nice write up on Manley's Find a Grave post that includes an image of the reward notice placed in the paper (thanks, Robert Hall!)
It's a little sad that his headstone is so eroded. We could say it's karma for being a criminal, but it's a fact that many marble stones in Eastern Cemetery have not held up to the test of time.
You can suggest a subterranean celebrity! Just send an email—it doesn't take much to make a nice little story. An index of all of our Subterranean Celebrities is available.
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Portland's Historic Eastern Cemetery, A Field of Ancient Graves by Ron Romano
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Ron Romano has published a follow up to his first book, Early Gravestones in Southern Maine — The Genius of Bartlett Adams and it focuses on the Eastern Cemetery itself: Portland's Historic Eastern Cemetery—A Field of Ancient Graves. This book:
- Describes the history of the cemetery's evolution
- Includes information on special cemetery sections: African American, Quaker, Catholic, and "Strangers"
- Discusses the history of Portland, Maine, in relation to this historic landscape
- Provides vignettes of the men and women memorialized in this special place
A must-read for any cemetery aficionado, the book is filled with photographs and sketches to illustrate the text. Our website has more about how to purchase this new publication.
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If you're an Amazon shopper, here's an easy way to support your favorite historic Maine cemetery:
- Go to smile.amazon.com
- Enter "Spirits Alive" in the box
- Choose the non-profit in Portland, Maine from the list
Voila! A portion of all of your purchases through smile.amazon.com will go to our efforts to support, conserve and promote this historic outdoor museum. Thank you!
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Support the work of Spirits Alive with your giving
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
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We are 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.
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