Entering Cedar Brook Burial Grounds

Vistors are welcome to tour the grounds.

For a tour of the grounds or a brochure, call Joyce Foley, President, at 207.637.2085, email at CBBG@MaineGreenCemetery.com or request information by mail: Cedar Brook Burial Ground, 175 Boothby Rd, Limington, ME 04049-3019

Global warming, going green

Natural Burial Grounds Becoming Popular

LIMINGTON (NEWS CENTER) -- With all the talk about global warming, going green has become a way of life for many of us. Now, people in Maine can even go "out" green -- and spend eternity in a natural resting place.

From a video interview with Peter McHugh

Work continues at the Joshua Small Cemetery

The wonderful fieldstone wall surrounding the cemetery is being repaired. Some of the stones have, over time, dropped from the wall and are being carefully fitted back in place. There is ongoing maintenance to the grounds within and around the cemtery.

The cemetery is available to visitors to Cedar Brook Burial Ground.

Lakin's "do-it-yourself" funerals

Funeral Options

Funeral planning is less stressful and can cost less if planned ahead. Many people do not know they can plan a funeral or burial that is out of the ordinary or alternative to more familiar services or arrangements. For those reasons this information has been prepared for Consumers. This is not an endorsement of any one approach over the other but simply an offering of information that illustrates choice since we believe it is everyone's choice to live as one chooses until one dies. Why not have choices with one's funeral and burial planning as well? This tool may help you accomplish those goals that are within your power. For more information

Funerals: A Consumer's Guide

Conversion Coffins

After his father's death, Chuck Lakin, a reference librarian at Miller, wondered if there was a way a family might play a bigger part in a loved one's funeral. "My father was at home for the last six weeks of his life, we were all touching him when he died. Then the funeral director walks in, takes over, and four days later, we had a box of ashes," Lakin recalled. Dissatisfied with the mechanical nature of modern-day funerals, Lakin decided to help people make them more personal. "There are only two states that require a funeral director," he explained. "In Maine, you can keep the body at home, and deliver it to the cemetery yourself." For more information

Author: Neha Sud '05

Consumer info & supplies

About Limington, Maine
Changing funeral & burial practices
Pets included
Green cemeteries in the US
Two green cemeteries in Maine
Earth Compatible Caskets
Green Burials
New England Green Burial Society

Iron gate installed at Joshua Small Cemetery

The Limington Historical Society which maintains the Joshua Small Cemetery contracted with Timothy Greene of Standfast Works Forge of Parsonsfield, Maine to fabricate a new gate for the Joshua Small plot.

The public is welcome to visit the Joshua Small Cemetery located here at Cedar Brook Burial Ground on Boothby Road, Limington.



For information about the Limington Historical Society email Anne Dunbar, Secretary or or call 207-637-2970.
On the web at Limington Historical Society.

Cedar Brook Burial Ground: a Green Option

Cedar Brook Burial Ground is now open. Visitors are welcome to tour the Grounds.

Please call ahead to be sure Peter McHugh will be available to guide you. 207.637.2085




Paths with memorial stones and traditional plots are available.

Prices & Environmental considerations

For additional information contact Peter McHugh at 207.637.2085

For driving directions:
Call 207.637.2085 or email
Or use 175 Boothby Rd, Limington, ME to get directions online.
Or click here for map & directions from Portland, ME
Click here for map & directions from Hampton, NH Toll booth

Open House planned

Winter visitors at Cedar Brook Burial Ground.

Cedar Brook Burial Ground is located on a 150 acre tree farm thirty miles due west of Portland. Within its borders sits the rock wall-enclosed Joshua Small Cemetery, a tiny, historic graveyard whose dozen burials date back to the early 1800s.

An Open House is planned for the Spring. New paths with memorial stones will be available in addition to the more traditional plots.

If you would like to be notified of the Open House and other up coming events, please submit your email address at: CBBG.

Dust to dust (and no more) Limington’s green cemetery

by Cliff White, Staff Writer, Gorham Westbrook Gazette, November 16, 2007

Peter McHugh rides his all-terrain vehicle across the 2.1 acres of 150-acre property he has recently devoted to creating Maine’s first green cemetery.

He points out prospective locations for burial sites – little spaces of cleared land marked only by brown fallen leaves amidst a forest of mostly bare trees. . . .

Maine law allows small family graveyards no larger than a quarter-acre without the need for a permit, as long as no bodies are buried within 25 rods (413 feet) from the nearest land used for public recreation or potable water source. However, some years ago, McHugh decided he wanted to create a cemetery that gives others the option to be buried in a more natural fashion than otherwise available.

“I wanted to give people the option to be buried in the way they prefer,” McHugh says. “If they prefer a more environmentally friendly, less costly method of burial, then they should have that option.”

The town of Limington has no local ordinances regarding the development of commercial cemeteries, so McHugh needed only to apply to the state. In September, McHugh registered his cemetery – named the Cedar Brook Burial Ground after a local topographical feature – with the Department of Health and Human Services. McHugh says it took only about 10 days after the submission of his application to receive notice of his registration as a cemetery. . . .

McHugh allows customers to choose their own space in his cemetery, and to mark the spot with any local stone, which he says he will allow to be engraved. He says he will allow unlimited visitations by anyone interested. . . .

“Last year 22,500 cemeteries across the US buried 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 104,272 tons of steel, 2,700 tons of copper and bronze, 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods and 1.6 million tons of concrete,” Christensen says. “In purely ecological terms, how we bury our dead is unsustainable.”

Mark Harris, author of the book “Grave Matters,” an examination of alternative methods of burial, said green cemeteries are becoming more popular in America because they are easier on the environment. . . .

Green burials can also help save a different kind of green – the kind found in people’s wallets.

“Between charges for embalming, a metal casket, a vault, a headstone, the cemetery charges for a plot and the opening and closing of a grave, and the fee for perpetual care and maintenance of the gravesite, funeral costs today can easily run $10,000 or more,” Harris said. “Green burials, in contrast, run in the low thousands of dollars, and can be less depending on personal choices. So the cost differential is huge.”

McHugh says saving on funeral costs is a significant factor in choosing a green burial ground.

“It’s a simpler, less costly way to bury your loved one,” McHugh says. “Traditional funerals can get very expensive. I wanted to give people another option.”

For complete article

Maine a pioneer in green cemeteries

Peter McHugh’s 150-acre tree farm already contains a small graveyard, and now he has Cedar Brook Burial Ground, about 20 miles west of Portland, ready to do business as a green cemetery.

There are seven green cemeteries in the United States, according to national experts.

A green cemetery contains people buried in simple graves, usually in natural, forested areas. Bodies are wrapped in shrouds or placed in wicker or pine coffins. The cemeteries do not accept bodies containing formaldehyde or other embalming chemicals, and they don't accept metal coffins or use concrete vaults.

They also don't have manicured, fertilized lawns or polished granite monuments.

From an article by John Richardson, Staff Writer, October 28, 2007 in the Maine Sunday Telegram

Note: 2.25 acres are devoted to Cedar Brook Burial Ground 2.25 acres devoted to the cemetery with more acorage available when the need arises.

Cedar Brook Burial Ground is now open

There are very few Green Burial site in the United States.

Cedar Brook Burial Ground is the first "Green Cemetery" in Maine. Each burial site will have a specific location. Visitors will be able to find the resting place of the loved one using global positioning equipment.

For a tour of Cedar Brook Burial Ground or more information please call me at 207 637 2085 or e-mail me CBBG@MaineGreenCemetery.com

Joyce Foley, President, CBBG

Cedar Brook Burial Grounds

Work is underway creating a green cemetery in Limington, Maine.

Contact information

Contact Joyce Foley, Presdient
Cedar Brook Burial Ground, Inc.
175 Boothby Road
P.O. Box 511
Limington, ME 04049-0511
207.637.2085
Email: CBBG@MaineGreenCemetery.com



Visitors welcome year round

Driving directions from Portland

Driving directions to 175 Boothby Rd, Limington, ME 04049 from Portland, ME
26.2 mi – about 54 mins

1. Head southwest on Congress St toward Exchange St 0.4 mi
2. Turn right at Forest Ave 0.7 mi
3. Turn right to merge onto I-295 S toward So Portland 0.9 mi
4. Take exit 5B for Congress St/ME-22 W 0.2 mi
5. Merge onto Congress St/ME-22 1.4 mi
6. Slight right at Westbrook St 1.3 mi
7. Continue on Stroudwater St 1.7 mi
8. Turn left at ME-25/William L Clarke Dr Continue to follow ME-25 2.3 mi
9. Slight left at Main St/ME-25 Continue to follow ME-25 15.5 mi
10. Turn left at Boothby Rd 1.7 mi to 175 Boothby Rd, Limington, ME 04049

These directions are for planning purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, weather, or other events may cause conditions to differ from the map results, and you should plan your route accordingly. You must obey all signs or notices regarding your route.
Map data ©2008 NAVTEQ™

View Larger Map