{"nrhp_refnum":"04001083","name":"Robin Hill Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Donald Lynch Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Marlborough","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.36445215200007,"lon":-71.59458197599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-09-29","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 one-acre neighborhood burial ground in the northwest corner of Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in use from 1817. It has a fieldstone perimeter wall, a granite-faced receiving tomb and a grid of 25 family lots.","why_significant":"The cemetery is tied to the 19th-century farming neighborhood of northwest Marlborough and to the town's system of neighborhood burial grounds that became municipal after 1855. It shows the shift from informal burying ground to planned cemetery with family lots. Its marble headstones and epitaphs illustrate mid-19th-century funerary styles and sentiment.","narrative":"Robin Hill Cemetery is a one-acre burial ground in the northwest corner of Marlborough, Massachusetts, now surrounded by highways and commercial development. Its 24 surviving markers record 27 burials between 1817 and 1999. The western two-thirds occupies a wooded hill about 30 feet high, while the level eastern section is laid out in a grid of 25 small family lots. A fieldstone wall encloses the site, and a granite-faced receiving tomb is set into the wall along the street. Most headstones are simple marble, with a single slate stone carved with a willow and urn. The graves include a Revolutionary War veteran, three Civil War veterans and one World War II veteran. The cemetery was one of several neighborhood burial grounds established in the early 19th century and taken over by the town after 1855. It was listed for its link to Marlborough's farming history and as an early example of family-lot planning in a small New England cemetery.","period_of_significance":"1817 - 1954","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Generally well maintained and retains a high level of integrity, though the surrounding area has changed greatly. It is not generally considered an active cemetery, though residents of the neighborhood may still be buried there.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.523654-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7960/63796089/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04001083.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001083/32651d1cc2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001083/32651d1cc2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robin_Hill_Cemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</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:Robin_Hill_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796089","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hill_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7352468"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/robin-hill-cemetery-04001083/"}