{"nrhp_refnum":"04000084","name":"Center Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Sam Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worthington","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.394466504000036,"lon":-72.94288267999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-02-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Social History","Landscape Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Center Cemetery is a 2.4-acre town-owned rural burial ground on Sam Hill Road near Worthington Center, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, with its earliest burial around 1774. It holds 631 markers and monuments and is still used for burials.","why_significant":"The cemetery is significant under Criterion A for its link to the town's founding families, early officials, church founders and veterans, and under Criterion C for its landscape features and locally carved gravestones. It includes signed work by regional stone carvers and a rare Hampton Indian motif stone from 1777. It retains the character of an 18th-century rural burial ground.","narrative":"Center Cemetery is a 2.4-acre rural burial ground on Sam Hill Road, close to Worthington Center in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. Its earliest burial dates to about 1774, and burials continue today. Rows of mature sugar maples and fieldstone walls frame the grounds, and turf and dirt cart paths divide it into four sections that reflect changing burial practices from the 1770s onward. Of its 631 markers, about 63 percent are marble and 33 percent granite. Several older stones are carved in Goshen Stone, and a number carry the signed work of regional carvers. The 1777 stone of Jereme Kinne bears a rare Hampton Indian motif. The cemetery holds the graves of many original settlers, the town's first minister, officials, prominent families such as the Brewsters and Starkweathers, and 51 veterans. Its landscape and gravestone artistry, along with its connection to the town's founding, account for its listing.","period_of_significance":"1774-1954","architect_builder":"G. Fleming; H. Pomeroy; Logan & Joyner; F. Munnier; T. Sturges; Rule & Marble (stone carvers)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a cemetery, with new burials continuing; owned by the Town of Worthington.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.412797-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/7954/63795483/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04000084.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000084/c133008947-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000084/c133008947-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WorthingtonMA_CenterCemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WorthingtonMA_CenterCemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795483","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_Cemetery_(Worthington,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5059272"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/center-cemetery-04000084/"}