Established 1668 at the base of Munjoy Hill, Eastern Cemetery is Portland's oldest historic site, with War of 1812 naval officers buried side by side and the annual 'Walk Among the Shadows' candlelit storyteller event.
224 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Self-guided daytime access is free. Spirits Alive guided tours and the October 'Walk Among the Shadows' event are ticketed; check spiritsalive.org.
Access
Limited Access
Sloped historic burial ground at the base of Munjoy Hill with uneven turf, exposed roots, and slate gravestones.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1668 · Portland's oldest historic site · National Register of Historic Places (1973) · Burrows-Blyth War of 1812 graves
Eastern Cemetery was established in 1668, making it Portland's oldest historic site and one of the oldest cemeteries in northern New England. It occupies roughly seven acres at the base of Munjoy Hill, between Congress and Federal streets near the Mountfort Street intersection.
The cemetery served as the city's primary burial ground for nearly two centuries and contains an estimated 4,000 marked graves with another ~3,000 unmarked interments. Among the most-visited graves are those of War of 1812 naval officers Lt. William Burrows of the brig USS Enterprise and Commander Samuel Blyth of HMS Boxer, who died in the September 5, 1813 engagement off the Maine coast and were buried with full honors side by side in Eastern Cemetery — a gesture commemorated in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem 'My Lost Youth.'
Eastern Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. By the early 2000s, the grounds had suffered significant deterioration and vandalism. The nonprofit Spirits Alive was formed in 2006 to organize community preservation, restore slate and sandstone markers, and run interpretive programs.
Spirits Alive's signature seasonal program, 'Walk Among the Shadows,' is now an established Portland Halloween tradition. Costumed local actors portray cemetery residents at their graves while audiences walk between stations by candlelight. The 2026 run is scheduled for October 15-18 and 22-25.
Sources
Eastern Cemetery's paranormal reputation is primarily atmospheric. Ghost City Tours and other Portland walking-tour operators include the cemetery's Congress Street perimeter on their evening routes, where guides describe shadowy figures said to wander between the slate gravestones and feelings of being watched along the Mountfort Street wall.
The cemetery is also the gathering point for Spirits Alive's annual 'Walk Among the Shadows' event each October, in which costumed actors deliver researched first-person monologues at the graves of the people they portray. The event is explicitly historical and theatrical rather than a paranormal investigation; Spirits Alive describes it as a community history program.
No named paranormal entity is consistently associated with Eastern Cemetery in the published sources. The site's draw for paranormal visitors is its age — 1668 — and its dense concentration of early-American graves, including infants who died during yellow-fever epidemics and Revolutionary War casualties.
Media Appearances
Daytime guided walking tours led by the Spirits Alive nonprofit through Portland's oldest burial ground (1668), with stops at the side-by-side graves of War of 1812 naval officers Lt. William Burrows and Commander Samuel Blyth and other early Portland figures.
Spirits Alive's annual October candlelit event in which costumed actors portray cemetery residents at their graves. Now an established Portland Halloween tradition drawing roughly 1,000 visitors across the run.
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