{"nrhp_refnum":"04000536","name":"Maple Street Cemetery","other_names":["Mount Vernon","Friends Burial Ground"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Maple St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Adams","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.62617498800006,"lon":-73.1230003065812,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-06-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A sixteen-acre town cemetery on Maple Street in Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, at the base of Mount Greylock. It grew from a Quaker burial ground begun about 1767 and a town burial area established before 1800, and was unified in 1859 and designed in 1869.","why_significant":"The cemetery is significant as a rare town cemetery with a known designer, civil engineer Charles F. Sayles, whose 1869 plan survives largely intact. It also preserves the Quaker burial ground and 1784 Meeting House, and a wide range of gravemarkers reflecting the town's manufacturing history. It has archaeological potential for Native American and historic-period information.","narrative":"Maple Street Cemetery occupies sixteen acres on the west side of Adams, Massachusetts, beneath Mount Greylock. It began as a Quaker burial ground around 1767, with a Meeting House added in 1784, while the town created its own burial area on the eastern rise before 1800. The town joined the two areas in 1859 by buying the nine acres between them. In 1869 local civil engineer Charles F. Sayles drew the plan that still organizes the grounds, with Memorial Circle, long east-west roads, cross lanes and burial sections. Later additions include an 1864-1865 marble receiving tomb, Works Progress Administration marble curbing and walls, and the 1936 entrance gates. The cemetery holds the ca. 1900 Plunkett Mausoleum, unmarked Quaker graves, iron crosses for Polish children, and monuments to mill owners and workers. Mature sugar maples and long views of Mount Greylock and the town's mills and church spires remain.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Charles F. Sayles (civil engineer, 1869 cemetery plan)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Still an active cemetery, with burials as late as 2001; the layout, paths and roadways remain essentially unchanged.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.431252-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/7941/63794174/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04000536.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000536/b4acda8f45-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000536/b4acda8f45-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maple_Street_Cemetery,_Adams_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:Maple_Street_Cemetery,_Adams_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794174","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_Street_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6753992"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/maple-street-cemetery-04000536/"}