Cemeteries have been thought of and utilized as much more than places to bury the dead, but few have been able to do so in such an imaginative way as Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vermont. The creativity and variety that is showcased in nearly all of the memorials and tombstones it contains have collectively made it a landmark for the entire region.
From Garden Park to Community Hub
Established in 1895, Hope Cemetery was originally designed as a garden park. The space was envisioned as a place where residents could wander about and use as a place to connect with one another. It soon did just that, but the audience connection that it cultivated was on account of the incredible tombstones and grave designs that began to fill the space.
The creativity inherent in these pieces is directly tied to the local granite industry that exploded as a result of the discovery of vast granite deposit in the region that would enable the popularity of “Barre granite”. This material attracted artists from around the world to make Barre their home. These artists designed many of the early monuments in the space, helping Hope Cemetery to establish itself as a place where people could see the work of these incredible artists.
This uniqueness allowed Hope Cemetery to become a place for the Barre community to gather and explore, compelling discussions and arguments about which piece was the best. These arguments had and continue to fund commissions of local artists to carry on this tradition of creating memorials and tombstones that represent the interred in especially creative and imaginative ways.
That connection to something so connected to the region is one thing nearly all Hope Cemetery sculpture have in common. They’re all sculptured from Barre granite, but the variety in terms of their size, scope and focus have enabled the entire location to become something that is as relevant to the community in the present as it is to the deceased.
Memorials and Tombstones that are Figurative, Abstract, Informational and Beyond
More than 10,000 tombstones and memorials are now located inside Hope Cemetery. They range in size, scope and format, which include a soccer ball that was created for a soccer coach who loved the game and a monument that was designed for a real-life superhero. A monument that features a race car has become one of the cemetery’s most famous, while the final resting place for Elia Corti has become especially notable for being cut from a single piece of granite.
A map of Hope Cemetery calls out the most famous of these monuments that are spread across what is now a 65 acre space. Large or small, all of these pieces are tribute to both the artists that created them as well as to the individuals or families interred in the space. Numerous remarkable and haunting stories are the source of many of these pieces. Hobbies and special interest of the deceased are forever preserved in ways that are as unique as they are remarkable.
All of the people buried in Hope Cemetery have a story associated with them, but the same could be said for any cemetery. What makes Hope Cemetery different is the imaginative interpretation of these stories that these individuals and artists have actively enabled. That’s part of the reason that audiences can always find something new or different in the space, no matter how many times they’ve visited.
Barre has been called the “Granite Capital of the World” but Hope Cemetery has been able to embody that tagline in a profound manner. The monuments it contains have been mentioned as the finest examples of memorial design and granite craftsmanship ever produced. This notoriety has attracted the attention of audiences in a way that will continue to resonate across the eras.
More Than a Final Resting Place
Set amidst the natural beauty of the Green Mountains, Hope Cemetery is mentioned on many of Vermont’s “must-see” lists for multiple reasons. It has come to represent a legacy that is about so much more than a final resting place for the people interred. With many members of the community actively planning for how they can be part of and augment what is effectively an outdoor sculpture garden, Hope Cemetery highlights how the imaginative reinterpretation of a given space or expectation can create brand new opportunities for engagement with audiences of all types.
