Mount Hope Cemetery

Established in 1838, Mount Hope is one of the oldest municipal Victorian cemeteries in the United States and one of the most beautiful. The grounds are designed in the romantic landscape tradition — winding paths, wooded hillsides, Gothic Revival gatehouse — and the list of people buried here is extraordinary: Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony both rest here, a coincidence that makes this cemetery a place of genuine historical gravity. The Victorian monuments and mausoleums are architecturally impressive, and the trees are magnificent in autumn. The Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery run excellent guided tours.

791 Mount Hope Avenue. Open daily, dawn to dusk. Free.

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A story
Frederick Douglass is buried in Mount Hope alongside Susan B. Anthony — two of the most consequential figures in American history, in the same cemetery, in a city that was central to both the abolitionist movement and the early women's suffrage movement. Douglass escaped slavery and chose to make Rochester his home; Anthony spent most of her adult life there fighting for the vote.

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