{"nrhp_refnum":"07000682","name":"Pan Burying Ground","other_names":["Pan Cemetery","East Burying Ground","East Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"477 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bolton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.43066464000003,"lon":-71.58953394999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-07-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Landscape Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 3.3-acre town-owned cemetery at 477 Main Street (Route 117) in Bolton, Massachusetts, established in 1822 as the East Burying Ground and laid out by surveyor Silas Holman.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as a well-preserved roadside New England graveyard of the 1820s that keeps its original rectilinear layout. It holds a range of slate, marble and granite markers, including some of the town's best-preserved slates and most ornate obelisks and pillar monuments. It is the only Bolton cemetery with a group burial vault, and it became the most fashionable burying ground, with plots of prominent town-center families.","narrative":"Pan Burying Ground is a long, narrow town cemetery on the north side of Main Street (Route 117) in Bolton, Massachusetts. Bolton bought the land in 1822 from farmer Oliver Barrett, when the Old South Burying Ground was nearing capacity. Surveyor Silas Holman laid out forty family plots in five blocks beside a central cart path, and that grid is still visible. The grounds were enlarged in 1860 and 1963 and now cover 3.3 acres. About 400 markers show the usual shift from slate to marble to granite, with urn-and-willow carvings, signed work by regional carvers, obelisks and pillar monuments. A seven-chamber granite-fronted tomb of 1839 holds the names of leading townspeople, and it is the only group vault in a Bolton cemetery. Two cast-iron gates and a fieldstone and granite wall line the street. Prominent families from the town center bought plots here, making it the town's most fashionable burying ground. Burials continue today.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Silas Holman (surveyor who laid out the cemetery)","architectural_style":"N/A (Greek Revival and Victorian Gothic markers and gates noted)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still open to burials; described as generally well maintained, with some wall bowing and loosening stones and some missing or damaged markers.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.39476-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7975/63797504/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/07000682.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000682/ac622ef5b1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000682/ac622ef5b1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pan_Burying_Ground.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:Pan_Burying_Ground.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100002783","name":"Pan Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/pan-historic-district-100002783/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797504","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7129628"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/pan-burying-ground-07000682/"}