{"nrhp_refnum":"74000385","name":"Copp's Hill Burial Ground","other_names":["North Burying Place"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Charter, Snowhill, and Hull Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.36728694000004,"lon":-71.05575373299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-04-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Art","Military","Religion","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Copp's Hill Burial Ground, also called the North Burying Place, is a 2.04-acre city-owned cemetery on a sloping hillside bounded by Charter, Snowhill and Hull Streets in Boston's North End. It was established in 1659-1660 and enlarged in 1809, 1819 and 1832.","why_significant":"The form argues the site matters for the notable people buried there, including the Mather family, and for its collection of funerary art showing the shift from Puritan to neoclassical motifs. It also had military significance during the Revolution, when the British placed a battery on the site. Its 1830s landscaping and trees are noted as a small open space in a dense urban area.","narrative":"Copp's Hill Burial Ground is a hillside cemetery of about two acres in Boston's North End, bounded by Charter, Snowhill and Hull Streets. It began in 1659-1660 as the colony's second burying ground on land that belonged to shoemaker William Copp, and later additions in 1809, 1819 and 1832 reflected the growth of the city. Its present look comes from the lowering of the summit in 1804-07 and from landscaping in the 1830s. About 227 tombs and nearly 2,000 markers survive in granite, slate and marble. Buried here are Puritan ministers Increase, Cotton and Samuel Mather, shipbuilder Edmund Hartt, Robert Newman and Prince Hall. During the Revolution the British placed a battery on the southwest side, and gravestones were reportedly used for target practice. The markers trace a change from winged death's heads to neoclassical urns and willows. Trees and open ground provide green space in a dense district.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition rated good and unaltered; stones show vandalism, erosion and weather damage. The Victorian Gothic toolhouse burned and was replaced by a cement block structure. Interments occurred as recently as 1960.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.406818-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/7970/63797072/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74000385.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000385/996c526416-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74000385/996c526416-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Rhododendrites","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Copp%27s_Hill_Burying_Ground_(36245p).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Rhododendrites</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:Copp%27s_Hill_Burying_Ground_(36245p).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797072","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copp%27s_Hill_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1131544"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/copps-hill-burial-ground-74000385/"}