Post by bluefedish on Jan 2, 2008 16:52:29 GMT -5
Located at 791 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, New York.
It was opened in 1836, Mt Hope is the oldest Municipal Victorian Cemetery in America. The 196 acre cemetery requires over 14 1/2 miles of roads to reach it's 370,000 permanent residents. Famous for it's glacial deposits and picturesque, park like setting. The terrain in the older section of the cemetery is very irregular and was formed about 13,000 years ago during the last Ice Age when the continental glacier stalled here and started to melt. Debris that was trapped in the ice was carried along by melt water and dumped here at the glacier's edge. A series of interconnected hills, some nearly 300 feet high, created a ridge that pass through the cemetery, and continue almost three miles to the east. This collection of oddly shaped gravel piles is what makes this cemetery so beautiful. As you walk up, down and around the wooded hills you are constantly seeing new vistas... a primary concern of the Victorian designers. The cemetery is really a beautiful park. The Victorians left the terrain as it was, and landscaped it so that everything looked natural. During that period, Rochester had more flower and tree nurseries than the rest of the United States combined, and the largest of these nurseries was located across the Mt. Hope Avenue. Dozens of unique specimen trees were planted in the cemetery, and now those trees are over 150 years old, and they are absolutely spectacular.
A group of active volunteers, erect fallen monuments, rebuild roads, maintain gardens and provide free tours on the weekends. They also help with genealogical research from cemetery records.
Check out the video commentary:
www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4934053A39B2A13B
Selected Sources:
www.vintageviews.org/gravesite/cemetery/pages/mthope.html
www.youtube.com/
It was opened in 1836, Mt Hope is the oldest Municipal Victorian Cemetery in America. The 196 acre cemetery requires over 14 1/2 miles of roads to reach it's 370,000 permanent residents. Famous for it's glacial deposits and picturesque, park like setting. The terrain in the older section of the cemetery is very irregular and was formed about 13,000 years ago during the last Ice Age when the continental glacier stalled here and started to melt. Debris that was trapped in the ice was carried along by melt water and dumped here at the glacier's edge. A series of interconnected hills, some nearly 300 feet high, created a ridge that pass through the cemetery, and continue almost three miles to the east. This collection of oddly shaped gravel piles is what makes this cemetery so beautiful. As you walk up, down and around the wooded hills you are constantly seeing new vistas... a primary concern of the Victorian designers. The cemetery is really a beautiful park. The Victorians left the terrain as it was, and landscaped it so that everything looked natural. During that period, Rochester had more flower and tree nurseries than the rest of the United States combined, and the largest of these nurseries was located across the Mt. Hope Avenue. Dozens of unique specimen trees were planted in the cemetery, and now those trees are over 150 years old, and they are absolutely spectacular.
A group of active volunteers, erect fallen monuments, rebuild roads, maintain gardens and provide free tours on the weekends. They also help with genealogical research from cemetery records.
Check out the video commentary:
www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=4934053A39B2A13B
Selected Sources:
www.vintageviews.org/gravesite/cemetery/pages/mthope.html
www.youtube.com/
