{"nrhp_refnum":"04001222","name":"First Burial Ground","other_names":["Park Street Burial Ground"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Park St. near Centre St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Woburn","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.481675832000064,"lon":-71.15269033199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-11-13","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 1.4-acre colonial burial ground at Park Street and Centre Street in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, established around 1646 and used until 1794, with occasional later burials through 1903.","why_significant":"It is the oldest burial place in Woburn and was the town's only municipal burying ground for its first 160 years, holding the graves of founders and Revolutionary War soldiers. It also preserves an excellent collection of 17th and 18th century slate gravestones, many carved by the Lamson family of stone carvers. It may also hold archaeological evidence of unmarked graves.","narrative":"Woburn's First Burial Ground occupies 1.4 acres on a steep slope at Park and Centre Streets, just north of the city common. Established around 1646, shortly after the town center was laid out, it served as the community's main graveyard until 1794. Burials continued occasionally, with the last in 1903. Today about 203 gravestones remain, mostly slate stones dated 1690 to 1794 and carved with winged death's heads. Many show the style of Joseph Lamson and the Lamson family of carvers from Charlestown and Malden. Those buried here include Captain Edward Johnson, an early Woburn founder and author of an early history of New England, and fifteen Revolutionary War soldiers, among them two killed at Lexington and Concord. The largest monument marks the Baldwin family tomb, which includes Col. Loammi Baldwin and his civil engineer son. The grounds may also contain unmarked graves and other buried evidence of earlier use, including a former town pound.","period_of_significance":"1646-1903","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still a cemetery. It is city-owned, with chain link fencing, a fieldstone retaining wall and commemorative plaques near the entrance.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.704117-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/7960/63796093/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04001222.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001222/fceec77e35-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04001222/fceec77e35-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Burial_Ground,_Woburn_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Burial_Ground,_Woburn_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796093","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Burial_Ground_(Woburn,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452575"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/first-burial-ground-04001222/"}