Hope Cemetery
Memorial · Barre, Vermont
Eighty-five acres of hillside at Barre holding more than ten thousand monuments, every one of them cut from Barre Gray granite by the men who quarried and carved it - Italians and Scots who came for the trade in the late nineteenth century and stayed. Because they were carving for their own families and for each other, the restraint that governs most cemeteries is simply absent: there is a full-size granite racing car, an aeroplane, a football, an armchair, a zipper, and a Robert Burns of 1899 on a pedestal cut with scenes from his poems. It opened in 1895, it is free, and it is the best thing in Barre.
201 Maple Avenue, Barre, Vermont, 05641, United States
FREE and open, a public municipal cemetery with no ticket, no gate and no season. Free parking inside the gates, and ⚠ YOU MAY DRIVE THE INTERNAL ROADS, which makes 85 acres manageable. ⚠ THERE ARE NO VISITOR FACILITIES OF ANY KIND - no visitor centre, no shop, no restrooms, no staff, and no interpretation or signage explaining the monuments. Nobody will explain this place to you, so read about the carvers first or pair it with the VERMONT GRANITE MUSEUM 1.9 km away, which does the explaining and transforms the visit. ⚠ IT IS AN ACTIVE BURIAL GROUND: funerals take place here and families visit graves - do not photograph mourners, do not climb on monuments, and move away from any service. ⚠ COME EARLY OR LATE FOR THE LIGHT; grey granite at midday flattens and the carving disappears. Open year round, though the internal roads may not be cleared in winter.