Rochestera brainy city

Founded in 1838 Rochester’s Mount Hope was the first municipal rural cemetery in the United States. Situated on 197 acres of land with more than 350,000 graves, this Victorian burial ground boasts breathtaking 19th-century structures including a Moorish gazebo, a Florentine fountain and striking forested hills and valleys. Erected after cholera epidemics had filled up the city’s other burial sites on the drained swampland of lake Ontario’s backwaters, the cemetery is the final resting place for local heroes including Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. (George Eastman was cremated at Mount Hope.) Tours are given by the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery on Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. beginning the first weekend in May and continuing until the last weekend in October. Saturday tours are $5 per adult and begin at the cemetery's office (address listed). Sunday tours are $5 per adult and begin at the cemetery's north entrance, 791 Mount Hope Avenue.