{"nrhp_refnum":"06000129","name":"Prospect Hill Cemetery","other_names":["Bare Hill Burying Ground","Old Churchyard Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Auburn Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Millis","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.16691028500006,"lon":-71.36725160117976,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-03-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Art","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Prospect Hill Cemetery is an 18.26-acre municipal burial ground on Auburn Road in Millis, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, established around 1714 when Millis was part of Medway. It has an Old Cemetery and a New Cemetery laid out from the 1930s.","why_significant":"It is the only cemetery in Millis and has been in continuous use for nearly 300 years, with burials of many of the town's notable citizens. Its landscape and monuments span early 18th-century slate stones to modern granite, reflecting changing cemetery design and funerary art. It also holds 1930s WPA stone walls and works attributed to stonecarver Joseph Barbur Jr.","narrative":"Prospect Hill Cemetery in Millis, Massachusetts, is an 18.26-acre municipal burial ground that dates to about 1714, when the area was part of Medway. It is the town's only cemetery and is still in use. The Old Cemetery, about eight acres, includes the hilltop site of the first meetinghouse, hundreds of slate headstones with winged soul effigies, willow-and-urn carvings, marble obelisks, and mound tombs. Twenty slate stones are attributed to Joseph Barbur Jr. of West Medway. Later sections follow the 19th-century rural cemetery style, with terraced slopes, curving roads, and bowl-shaped burial areas. In 1932 Evan and Geneive Richardson donated farmland that became the New Cemetery, which includes a veterans section and a Hebrew section. Dry-laid boulder retaining walls built by the WPA in the 1930s remain throughout. The cemetery was listed because it documents the town's social history and nearly three centuries of burial design and monument styles.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Joseph Barbur Jr. (attributed stonecarver of 20 slate headstones); WPA (1930s retaining walls)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Remains in active use as the town cemetery; stone walls are mostly in excellent condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.513745-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7964/63796428/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/06000129.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000129/55aefd005c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000129/55aefd005c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prospect_Hill_Cemetery,_Millis_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:Prospect_Hill_Cemetery,_Millis_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796428","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Hill_Cemetery_(Millis,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7250764"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/prospect-hill-cemetery-06000129/"}