{"nrhp_refnum":"02000548","name":"Bennington Street Burying Ground","other_names":["Bennington Street Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Bennington St., bet. Swift and harmony Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.38068528400004,"lon":-71.02145178999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-05-22","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 3.6-acre municipal burying ground in East Boston, Massachusetts, on Bennington Street between Swift and Harmony Streets. It was laid out in 1837-1838 and holds burials dating from 1839 to 1948.","why_significant":"It is the only cemetery laid out in East Boston in 1837 and reflects the area's early history, including its working-class and immigrant population tied to shipbuilding and the railroad. It also illustrates the shift in New England burial design from crowded older grounds to spacious, orderly layouts. It is the largest and newest of Boston's 16 historic burying grounds.","narrative":"Bennington Street Burying Ground is a 3.6-acre municipal cemetery in East Boston, laid out in 1837-1838 when the district was being subdivided on newly shaped land. Its rectilinear plan, cruciform paths and rows of trees contrast with the crowded older burying grounds of central Boston, yet it did not follow the romantic landscape style of Mount Auburn Cemetery. About 300 headstones, mostly marble, along with 12 brick tombs, mark burials from 1839 to 1948. Epitaphs and carvings reveal a largely working-class, immigrant community, with ties to Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Norway, and to shipbuilding, the sea and the Eastern Railroad. Thirty-seven Civil War veterans and two World War I veterans are buried here. It was listed for its link to East Boston's early development and as a well-preserved example of a mid-19th-century municipal burial ground marking the transition toward later rural cemeteries. Its period of significance runs from 1837 to 1952.","period_of_significance":"1837-1952","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Generally well-maintained and neat, though many marble stones and the tombs need repair. The last confirmed burial was in 1948.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.489051-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/44/7970/63797044/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02000548.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000548/82a4950416-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000548/82a4950416-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bennington_Street_Burying_Ground_East_Boston_MA_02.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bennington_Street_Burying_Ground_East_Boston_MA_02.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797044","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennington_Street_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4889885"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/bennington-street-burying-ground-02000548/"}