Pine Grove Cemetery

The Pine Grove Cemetery is a 32-acre parcel located on Grove Street in Waterville and directly abuts the St. Francis Catholic Cemetery. This cemetery is unique due to the rare configuration of roads within the facility. This site includes three mausoleums, one tomb and approximately 13,000 lots containing an estimated 80,000 grave sites.

Certain sections of the cemetery include areas known as “Potter’s Field”, which were made available to deceased persons whose families could not afford to purchase grave sites. The oldest monuments date back to 1852. Several prominent community members are buried at Pine Grove Cemetery including Governors William T. Haines and Clinton Clauson. Over 500 veterans from various wars are buried here including the War of 1812, Revolutionary War, Korean War, World War I and II, Vietnam War, Spanish War and over 200 from the Civil War. At least one Medal of Honor winner, Frances Haskell, is interred here.

The Pine Grove Cemetery Chapel was built in 1907 and was designed by Architect William Butterfield. On July 19, 2012, the chapel building was designated as being eligible to be listed on the National Historic Register.

In 1943, the State of Maine Legislature established a Board of Trustees to be in charge of the administration of the cemetery. Although this system worked well for many years, the long-term management requires more time and resources than volunteer trustees can reasonably manage; therefore the legislature is acting on a bill to disband the trustee system and allow the city to takeover this function. Over the past year, several city staff have been working with Trudy Lovely, Cemetery Superintendent, and Allan Rancourt, Trustee, to that end.

This site is not only beautiful, but historic in the way it tells our city’s history. I would encourage a walk through the cemetery this summer or fall…I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised at the sites and history you find.