{"nrhp_refnum":"02000632","name":"Mechanic Street Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Mechanic St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westfield","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.12295243950007,"lon":-72.74432732230107,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-06-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Art","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 3.98-acre neighborhood burial ground on Mechanic Street in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, with markers dating from 1683 to 1934. A burial ground at this location was referred to in land divisions as early as 1677.","why_significant":"The cemetery holds a large, well-preserved collection of 17th- and 18th-century gravestones, including many intact footstones, that show the work of Connecticut Valley stonecutters and changing funerary motifs. It also contains the graves of notable early Westfield figures such as Reverend Edward Taylor, General William Shepard and Richard Falley Jr., and many Revolutionary and French and Indian War veterans.","narrative":"Mechanic Street Cemetery is a small graveyard of 3.98 acres in Westfield, Massachusetts, hidden behind the houses of a residential neighborhood and reached by a long grassy aisle from Mechanic Street. A burial ground here was mentioned in land divisions as early as 1677. About 1,127 headstones and footstones, representing 897 individuals, remain, dating from 1683 to 1934. Most are tablet markers, and many early plots still have their footstones. The stones show a progression of carving styles, from plain lettering to winged skulls, soul effigies and urn-and-willow designs. They were made by Connecticut Valley carvers working in local sandstone, later by Berkshire carvers in marble and by commercial New England cutters. Buried here are Reverend Edward Taylor, Westfield's first permanent minister, Revolutionary War General William Shepard, gunmaker Richard Falley Jr., and dozens of war veterans. Its layout in irregular rows, without formal landscaping, is typical of early New England burial grounds. An 1894 cast-iron gate marks the entrance.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Still a cemetery, surrounded by a chain-link fence installed against vandalism; the 1894 cast-iron gate provides the only access.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.705208-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/7953/63795355/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02000632.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000632/5657cf2d6a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000632/5657cf2d6a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mechanic_Street_Cemetery,_Westfield_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:Mechanic_Street_Cemetery,_Westfield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795355","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanic_Street_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6804471"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/mechanic-street-cemetery-02000632/"}