{"nrhp_refnum":"12000819","name":"North Bellingham Cemetery and Oak Hill Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Hartford Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bellingham","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.1169,"lon":-71.4594,"geom_source":"wikidata"},"listed_date":"2012-09-25","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 historic district of two adjacent cemeteries on Hartford Avenue in Bellingham, Massachusetts: North Bellingham Cemetery (earliest burial 1712) and Oak Hill Cemetery (established 1849), together covering about 3.6 acres.","why_significant":"North Bellingham is the town's oldest burying ground, with headstones tracing 18th- and 19th-century funerary art, including work attributed to carver Joseph Barbur, Jr. Oak Hill is a planned, privately run cemetery laid out in family lots. Together they show how burial practices changed in the community and connect to the town's 300-year history.","narrative":"Two neighboring cemeteries on Hartford Avenue in North Bellingham, Massachusetts, form this district. North Bellingham Cemetery, the town's oldest burying ground, was in use by 1718 and holds burials from 1712 to 1888. Its roughly 130 headstones, mostly slate and marble, show changing carving styles, and two stones are attributed to Joseph Barbur, Jr. Two receiving tombs, dated to 1804 but later rebuilt in granite, were used for winter storage of the dead. Oak Hill Cemetery was founded in 1849 by residents of the northern part of town as a designed alternative, with about 800 markers arranged in rectilinear family lots, many with curbing. It remains active. Its marble and later granite monuments reflect Victorian sentiment, and a few white bronze markers appear. A shared fieldstone perimeter wall, varying in height and construction, runs along the road frontage. Together the cemeteries record the town's founding families and the shift from informal burial grounds to planned family plots.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Receiving tomb inscription: built 1804 by Daniel Penniman, John Allen, Stephen Metcalf; headstones attributed to Joseph Barbur, Jr. of West Medway","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"North Bellingham Cemetery is town owned and its last burial was in 1888; Oak Hill Cemetery is privately owned and still an active cemetery. Many older headstones are worn, broken or leaning.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:10:51.802756-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/12/7964/63796412/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/12000819.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000819/8bd8744453-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000819/8bd8744453-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BellinghamMA_NorthBellinghamCemetery_1823Marker.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:BellinghamMA_NorthBellinghamCemetery_1823Marker.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796412","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Bellingham_Cemetery_and_Oak_Hill_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16895959"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/north-bellingham-cemetery-and-oak-hill-cemetery-12000819/"}