{"nrhp_refnum":"01001560","name":"Old Burying Ground","other_names":["First Town Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"King St., near jct. with White St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Littleton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.54532950600003,"lon":-71.47833600999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-02-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Community Planning and Development","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1.25-acre municipal burying ground on King Street (Routes 2A and 110) one block west of the town common in Littleton, Massachusetts, used for burials from 1717 to 1909 and also called the First Town Cemetery.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is closely tied to the early settlement of Littleton, serving as the town's only municipal burying ground for its first century. It is also a well-preserved Colonial New England burial ground that shows changing ideas of death and commemoration through the 19th century. It holds an outstanding collection of carved slate markers, some by known carving families.","narrative":"Littleton's Old Burying Ground is a long, narrow 1.25-acre cemetery on King Street, one block west of the town common. It holds about 400 recorded burials from 1717 to 1909, marked by roughly 340 gravestones, over 50 footstones and a few monuments. Over 90 percent of the markers are dark gray slate, many carved with winged death's heads, willows and urns, and some attributed to the Park, Lamson, Stevens and Worster families. A chinked granite wall of about 1748 fronts the street, and the grounds include family lots, a tomb dated 1821 and a granite obelisk honoring the town's second minister, Daniel Rogers. Nineteen Revolutionary War veterans are reportedly buried here. The cemetery was listed for its link to the town's early settlement, as the only municipal burying ground in the town's first century, and for the artistry of its markers. It also illustrates how burial customs and memorials changed into the 19th century.","period_of_significance":"1721 - 1909","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Generally well maintained, though some gravestones have been lost over time; still functioning as a cemetery.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.777637-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7960/63796079/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/01001560.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001560/f006657ad3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001560/f006657ad3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Burying_Ground,_Littleton_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Burying_Ground,_Littleton_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796079","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Burying_Ground_(Littleton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083563"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/old-burying-ground-01001560/"}