{"nrhp_refnum":"11000665","name":"Searles Hill Cemetery","other_names":["South Yard, South Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Searles Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Phillipston","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.533585017000064,"lon":-72.12618990999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2011-09-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Exploration/Settlement","Landscape Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Searles Hill Cemetery is a 3.3-acre town-owned burying ground on Searles Hill Road in Phillipston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, established around 1777 and also known as the South Yard.","why_significant":"It is one of the oldest known burial places in Phillipston and holds the graves of early settlers, veterans and town officials. It also typifies the layout of a late 18th-century New England burial ground, with rows of slate and marble tablets, many carved by regional gravestone carvers.","narrative":"Searles Hill Cemetery is a rectangular, 3.3-acre burying ground at the southern foot of Searles Hill in Phillipston, Massachusetts. Established around 1777 on land donated by an early settler, it predates the town's incorporation by about ten years and is the oldest known burial place in town. Cut-granite and fieldstone walls enclose the grounds, and a sugar maple allee lines the road. Its 98 markers, mostly slate with later marble, stand in neat rows and carry winged heads, willow-and-urn motifs and other carved imagery. Some stones are attributed to the Park brothers of Groton, and others are signed by mid-19th-century carvers from Barre, Athol and Fitchburg. Buried here are war veterans, farmers, town selectmen, and relatives of Thomas H. White, founder of the White Sewing Machine Company. The last burial occurred in 1915. Town volunteers keep the grounds in very good condition, though funds for stone conservation are lacking.","period_of_significance":"1777-1915","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Maintained by the town's volunteer Cemetery Commission and in very good overall condition; the last burial took place in 1915, and the town lacks funds for gravestone conservation.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:10:51.625684-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7975/63797502/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/11000665.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000665/dd55879164-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/11000665/dd55879164-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PhillipstonMA_SearlesHillCemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PhillipstonMA_SearlesHillCemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797502","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searles_Hill_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16899884"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/searles-hill-cemetery-11000665/"}