Families looking for an interesting way to spend an afternoon might consider a trip to the Mount Hope Cemetery. We know, we know — that sounds a tad strange. But aside from serving simply as a place to lay the deceased to rest, this cemetery is a wonderful piece of history that many visitors flock to each year.
Founded in 1838, the sheer amount of history found throughout the property would be enough to intrigue any history buff. The first municipal rural cemetery in America, Mount Hope is really more of a funerary museum than a typical cemetery. Beautiful sculptures, as well as several different types of trees, flowers and other plant life speckle the 196 acres of extraordinary rolling hills and picturesque landscape.
In fact, the cemetery is so beautiful that it is not uncommon to see joggers, cyclists and even picnickers enjoying a beautiful day on the property.
And yes, the people laid to rest here are certainly interesting. Civil and Women’s Rights Activist Susan B. Anthony died at her home in Rochester in 1906, 14 years before American women were given the right to vote. She is buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery, along with Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The Cemetery is on the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and is listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places.
Anthony’s gravestone is also the site made famous during the 2016 Presidential Election—the first in American history to have a woman on the ballot—when voters spontaneously decided to place their “I Voted” stickers on Anthony’s gravestone. Voters stood in line at the cemetery for hours to honor Anthony nearly a hundred years after her crusade.
Tours of the grounds are available to guide families to the headstones of some of the Mount Hope’s most notable burials, as well as many more of the over 350,000 people buried there spanning more than a century and a half.
Hours
7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily
Things to Know/Bring
Visit Susan B. Anthony’s Home and Museum, which is about 10 minutes away from Mount Hope Cemetery.
