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MT. HOPE CEMETERY

Mount Hope is the oldest municipally owned rural cemetery in the country (1838) and is the final resting place of nationally prominent figures such as Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. 


The Master Plan was a multiple-discipline, multi-year process that considered the preservation and rehabilitation of the cemetery to allow for economic stability and longevity. The approach to the plan was to create synergistic opportunities between seemingly competing interests of historic preservation, use as a public space, and continued active burials. The Plan has been lauded by the City Council and has been submitted for national award recognition. 


HUNT's Rochester office provided wide-ranging site/civil engineering and public information support in concert with Halvorson Design, an award-winning and nationally renowned cemetery design firm, and Johnson-Schmidt Architects


Halvorson’s specific efforts included, “developing preservation and development guidelines to provide a comprehensive framework for long term management of Mount Hope’s resources: preservation of landscape integrity, rehabilitation of deteriorated landscapes and facilities, efficient utilization of diminishing land resources, and enabling new sources of revenue”.  


The team took an in-depth look at the existing vegetation and presented a plan to manage it as a historically significant arboretum.  Detailed plans for the phased implementation of major capital projects and other initiatives focused on the following: North Entrance; Elmwood Frontage; Serenity Gardens; Sylvan Waters; South Entrance; Section Y; Section MM Corner; Patriot Hill Triangle; and, the Maintenance Yard.


*Photos courtesy of Halverson Design Partnership staff, City of Rochester staff, or David C. Gaudioso.

Client: 

City of Rochester

Location:

Rochester, New York

Scope:

Site/Civil Engineering

Landscape Architecture

Planning

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