Ocean View Cemetery
Also known as Old Graveyard, Cemetery 19
Wells, York County, Maine, USA
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- www.wellstown.org/448/Cemeteries
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Today's Ocean View Cemetery has roots as a traditional parish churchyard burying ground (back to the 1700s). It was initially just a small patch of land across the road from the First Parish parsonage. That road is now US Route 1 in Wells. In 1866 John Storer donated a large soldiers' memorial to the town. Consisting of a 20-foot tall marble obelisk—inscribed with the names of 34 townsmen who had died between 1861 and 1865 in service to the Union—the monument was placed close to the road in front of the parish churchyard. Ocean View Cemetery was established on this site in 1916; in 1929, the old parish churchyard was absorbed into the cemetery. The cemetery was then expanded at least twice more, and today consists of about four acres. Walking the level ground of this well-maintained cemetery, one can find slate gravestones as early as the year 1700. A fine collection of winged faces, urns & willows, and other hand-carved designs are present. Ocean View Cemetery also has three of only 42 "billboard monuments" known to exist in Maine (these consist of marble slabs elevated off the ground on stone posts, resembling signboards). A wide range of gravestone materials, monument styles, and symbols are present, from the early 1700s to the present day. Ocean View is managed by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees; it's active today and accepts burials for residents of Wells and Ogunquit or those with close ties.
This cemetery was listed as 1 in "Inscriptions From Gravestones at Wells, Maine" by Lester MacKenzie Bragdon published 1939 in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. The Wells highway department has now designated this cemetery as 19.
Today's Ocean View Cemetery has roots as a traditional parish churchyard burying ground (back to the 1700s). It was initially just a small patch of land across the road from the First Parish parsonage. That road is now US Route 1 in Wells. In 1866 John Storer donated a large soldiers' memorial to the town. Consisting of a 20-foot tall marble obelisk—inscribed with the names of 34 townsmen who had died between 1861 and 1865 in service to the Union—the monument was placed close to the road in front of the parish churchyard. Ocean View Cemetery was established on this site in 1916; in 1929, the old parish churchyard was absorbed into the cemetery. The cemetery was then expanded at least twice more, and today consists of about four acres. Walking the level ground of this well-maintained cemetery, one can find slate gravestones as early as the year 1700. A fine collection of winged faces, urns & willows, and other hand-carved designs are present. Ocean View Cemetery also has three of only 42 "billboard monuments" known to exist in Maine (these consist of marble slabs elevated off the ground on stone posts, resembling signboards). A wide range of gravestone materials, monument styles, and symbols are present, from the early 1700s to the present day. Ocean View is managed by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees; it's active today and accepts burials for residents of Wells and Ogunquit or those with close ties.
This cemetery was listed as 1 in "Inscriptions From Gravestones at Wells, Maine" by Lester MacKenzie Bragdon published 1939 in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. The Wells highway department has now designated this cemetery as 19.
Nearby cemeteries
- Added: 1 Jan 2000
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 90327
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