{"nrhp_refnum":"75000263","name":"Oak Grove Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by Derby, Washington, and Grove Sts., and Maplewood Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Gloucester","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.62034006300004,"lon":-70.66976849588445,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-04-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Oak Grove Cemetery is a landscaped rural-style cemetery district of about 15 acres on Washington Street in Gloucester, Essex County, Massachusetts, laid out in 1854 by Copeland and Cleveland and consecrated in June 1855.","why_significant":"It is believed to be the first joint design by pioneer American landscape architects Robert Morris Copeland and Horace William Shaler Cleveland. It is also a small but representative example of the romantic landscaped cemetery movement. It is the burial place of notable people, including painters Fitz Hugh Lane and John Henry Twachtman and opera singer Emma Abbott.","narrative":"Oak Grove Cemetery covers about 15 acres in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Boston landscape gardeners Copeland and Cleveland laid it out in 1854 as a romantic park, with winding avenues and paths named for plants, and it was consecrated in June 1855. Later additions toward Washington and Grove Streets kept the original curving plan. Granite gate piers survive on Washington Street, and a Romanesque granite memorial to businessman George R. Bradford, built in 1903-1904, marks the likely site of a planned chapel. The cemetery is believed to be the first joint work of Robert Morris Copeland and Horace W. S. Cleveland, two early American landscape architects. It also represents the nineteenth-century move away from crowded churchyards toward landscaped burial grounds. Buried here are painters Fitz Hugh Lane and John Henry Twachtman, opera singer Emma Abbott, sea captains, local benefactors and baseball player Ralph Perkins. Vandalism and neglect have damaged monuments and plantings.","period_of_significance":"1854","architect_builder":"Copeland and Cleveland (Robert Morris Copeland and Horace William Shaler Cleveland); Bradford Memorial designed by Ezra L. Phillips and built by Pigeon Hill Granite Company of Rockport","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Deteriorated: many monuments have been vandalized, all suffer from neglect, and the plantings have not been maintained for years; restoration is hoped for when funding is found.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.746478-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/21/7950/63795021/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000263.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000263/231b427078-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000263/231b427078-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oak_Grove_Cemetery,_Gloucester_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oak_Grove_Cemetery,_Gloucester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795021","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Grove_Cemetery_(Gloucester,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7073500"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/oak-grove-cemetery-75000263/"}