with Martha Oaks, Chief Curator
CAM Green, 13 Poplar St, Gloucester, MA
$10 for Members, $20 for Non-Members

In January 1865, the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston purchased land on Poplar Street in Gloucester’s Riverdale neighborhood to be used as a cemetery. Known today as Oak Hill, it is the resting place for many of Cape Ann’s leading citizens as well as scores of ordinary townspeople. Take a walk through the site to see the gravesites of a Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, a young Italian boy who drowned in a quarry pit in Rockport in 1891 and Capt. Joseph P. Mesquita an influential member of Gloucester’s Portuguese community a century ago. You will also see the corner of the cemetery captured by American artist Edward Hopper during one of his visits to Gloucester in the 1920s.

In exploring Oak Hill, it’s important to remember that the reason the cemetery was laid out in 1865 was because by that time Cape Ann’s Catholic population had grown to such a size that a Catholic church had been established (St. Ann’s, est. c. 1851) and a burial place was needed. Many of the immigrants who flooded into the community between 1840 and 1865 in search of work were Catholics, hailing from the Canadian Maritimes, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and other European nations.

Participants should feel comfortable on their feet for two hours; moderate walking (inclines involved).

Image:
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Cemetery in Gloucester
c. 1920s
Conte crayon on paper
Collection of the Cape Ann Museum
Gift of Robert L. and Elizabeth French, 2009
Funding for conservation of this work was provided by Arthur N. Ryan’s Bequest to the Cape Ann Museum