Riverside Cemetery Announces Self-Guided History Tour

LEWISTON – A self-guided historical tour is available for the Riverside Cemetery, 192 Summer St.

Founded shortly after Lewiston’s incorporation as a city, the cemetery spans over 40 acres and contains more than 9,000 graves, including those of many of the area’s most historic figures. That includes Civil War generals, mayors, governors and founders of the Sun Journal, Central Maine Medical Center and Bates College, according to a press release from Joan Macri, chair of the Riverside Cemetery Board of Trustees.

Designed in 1854 as a rural garden or cemetery, local citizens were encouraged to stroll the Riverside grounds to admire the mature trees, views of the Androscoggin River, and examples of 19th and 20th century funerary art.

The Riverside Cemetery Board, in an effort to share some of the stories of those who call Riverside their final resting place, has created the first in a series of self-guided walking tours introducing visitors to the stories of these people.

They also include a female doctor who graduated from Bates College in 1901 and became a world-renowned virologist, a 24-year-old man killed at Gettysburg and a Lewiston High School graduate who became Babe Ruth’s favorite managers.

To begin this first self-guided tour, enter through the cemetery gates from Riverside or Summer streets. The granite panel to the left contains a map and tour highlights.

For more information, contact Macri at [email protected] or 207-402-1991.

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