The mission of the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery is to optimize the cemetery's potential as a cultural resource through education, preservation and promotion of Mount Hope Cemetery's unique heritage.

Dedicated in 1838 in Rochester NY, Mount Hope is America's first municipal Victorian cemetery.

Set in a picturesque landscape shaped by retreating glaciers, the cemetery features more than 80 mausoleums, soaring Egyptian obelisks, winged angels of mercy, a Florentine cast-iron fountain, two stone chapels in Gothic Revival style, a Moorish gazebo, and infinitely varied tombstones marking 350,000 graves across 196 acres.

Mount Hope Cemetery is listed in:

    •    Mount Hope/Highland Preservation District, Rochester, NY
    •    New York State Register of Historic Places
    •    National Register of Historic Places
    •    National Park Services National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
    •    Erie Canalway National Corridor, as an Affiliate Site

and is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat and a historic site on Rochester's portion of the Genesee Riverway Trail.

MAILING ADDRESS
Please address mail correspondence to:
Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery
P.O. Box 18713
Rochester, NY 14618-0713




Please note: When using the CONTACT US feature, the words CONTACT US must be the only words used in the subject line.

2018 GUIDED WALKING TOURS
tour group
The Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery offer general and special-theme guided walking tours throughout the year.

For more information about General Tours as well as a host of intriguing special Theme Tours, visit the  TOURS Page. 

Join us for these upcoming Theme Tours:

ABOLITIONISTS AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Saturday, July 21 at 11 a.m.
Tour Guide: Sally Millick
Meet: South Entrance (opposite the Distillery Restaurant)
Admission:  $10 per person; free for members, and for children under 16 when accompanied by a paying adult. (Note: CASH/CHECK ONLY for tours that begin at the South Entrance)

Rochester was a center of the Underground Railroad network, moving enslaved African Americans to freedom, as well as home to leaders in the movement such as Frederick Douglass. This tour introduces many of the key players in these efforts and how they supported the freedom seekers. On this 200th anniversary year of Frederick Douglass' birth, we pay homage to his role, his friends, and his fascinating life story.

Sally Millick, your guide and author of the tour, is a former trustee of the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. Having led tours for over a decade, she has researched and written a number of theme tours. She also volunteers as a guide for The Landmark Society, is a former Macedon Village Historian, and currently Grove Place neighborhood historian.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

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New Tour Added!!
TREE WALK THROUGH MOUNT HOPE CEMETERY
Tour Guide: Tom Jones
Meet: North Gatehouse (opposite Robinson Drive)
Admission:  $10 per person; free for members, and for children under 16 when accompanied by a paying adult.

Mount Hope Cemetery is home to many specimen trees, some over 100 years old. Take a walk with tour guide Tom Jones to see how many trees we can identify in a 2-hour period. Play "Stump the Chump" to see how many trees that you know - but he doesn't. Tree form, bark, leaves and flowers all hold clues to identification.
 
Tom Jones is a lifelong resident of the Rochester area who loves trees. It's been said that he has sap in his veins instead of blood. He "travels for trees" and has visited different arboretums, parks and cemeteries building his knowledge.

Photo: European Purple Beech, a gift from the Ellwanger and Barry Nursery on the 10th anniversary of the founding of Mount Hope Cemetery (1848).
Photo credit: Don Hall


GENEALOGICAL SERVICES
Click on Genealogical Services to find information about  assistance offered by Friends volunteers.

SHOPPING ONLINE AT AMAZON?
Support the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery by choosing us as your charity of choice when you shop at Smile.Amazon.com.