{"nrhp_refnum":"13000096","name":"Pine Grove Cemetery","other_names":["Grove Yard","South Truro Cemetery","South Side Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Cemetery Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Truro","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.978041639000025,"lon":-70.05891311599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2013-03-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Art","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-acre burying ground in Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, established in 1742 beside the town's first meetinghouse. The prompt header places it in Truro, but the document itself describes Leominster.","why_significant":"It is described as the oldest remaining link to Leominster's early history and retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship. It is significant under Criteria A and C as a cemetery whose gravestones, walls, tombs and landscape show its evolution through the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. It also holds the graves of early comb-making and plastics pioneers and of civic leaders.","narrative":"Pine Grove Cemetery is a three-acre burying ground in Leominster, Massachusetts, laid out in 1742 at the east end of the town's first meetinghouse. It grew through two expansions and closed to burials in 1937. About 800 gravestones remain, most of them 18th- and 19th-century slate and marble, carved with death's heads, winged angels, and willow and urn motifs. Four granite tombs from the 1830s and 1840s are built into a fieldstone wall that was rebuilt and extended by a 1930s WPA project. Roughly 130 mature trees and flowering shrubs shade the grounds. The cemetery matters as the oldest surviving link to Leominster's early history and as a landscape showing changing burial practices over three centuries. It holds the graves of the town's first settler, Gershom Houghton, of comb-making and early plastics pioneers, and of state legislator David Wilder. Its integrity remains high despite worn gates and shifted wall stones.","period_of_significance":"1742-1958","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Closed to burials in 1937; retains a high degree of historical integrity, though the city has had little money for upkeep. Gates, walls and some family plot fencing need repair.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:10:51.628828-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/7974/63797498/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/08000168.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000096/6feef9dd7e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000096/6feef9dd7e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Stina716","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pine_Grove_Cemetery_Truro,_Ma.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Stina716</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:Pine_Grove_Cemetery_Truro,_Ma.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797498","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Grove_Cemetery_(Truro,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16898446"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/pine-grove-cemetery-13000096/"}