{"nrhp_refnum":"13000170","name":"Center Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"178 College Hwy (Rte 10)","address_restricted":false,"city":"Southhampton","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.236917578500055,"lon":-72.7257262160702,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2013-04-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Landscape Architecture","Exploration/Settlement","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Center Cemetery is a 2.4-acre town-owned burial ground on Sam Hill Road near Worthington Center, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, with earliest burials around 1774 and containing 631 markers and monuments.","why_significant":"The cemetery holds the graves of Worthington's original settlers, church founders, veterans of five wars and influential local families, reflecting the town's early development (Criterion A). It also has a designed rural landscape of maple-lined edges, fieldstone walls and grid paths, and many locally carved markers, including a rare Hampton Indian motif stone from 1777 (Criterion C).","narrative":"Center Cemetery is a 2.4-acre burial ground along Sam Hill Road, close to Worthington Center in western Massachusetts. Its earliest burial dates to about 1774, and new graves are still added. Mature sugar maples line all four edges, dry-laid fieldstone walls enclose three sides, and cart paths divide the grounds into four sections that show changing burial styles from the 1770s onward. Of 631 markers, about 63 percent are marble and 33 percent granite, and several are carved in Goshen Stone by local carvers. The 1777 stone of Jereme Kinne bears the rare Hampton Indian motif. The cemetery holds the graves of early settlers, the town's first minister, Revolutionary War veterans, and prominent families such as the Brewsters, Starkweathers and Burrs. It was listed for its association with the town's settlement and growth and for its landscape features and locally made gravestones, which keep the character of an eighteenth-century rural burial ground.","period_of_significance":"1774-1954","architect_builder":"G. Fleming; H. Pomeroy; Logan & Joyner; F. Munnier; T. Sturges; Rule & Marble (stone carvers)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a cemetery; burials continue today.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:10:51.822192-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/7954/63795483/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/04000084.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000170/25f1a7783d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/13000170/25f1a7783d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"DyanFrench","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entrance_Monument.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">DyanFrench</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:Entrance_Monument.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795483","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_Cemetery_(Southampton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16858641"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/center-cemetery-13000170/"}