{"nrhp_refnum":"83004010","name":"East Parish Burying Ground","other_names":["Centre Street Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Centre and Cotton Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.340075963500055,"lon":-71.19050905229828,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-11-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly three-acre colonial burying ground at the corner of Centre and Cotton Streets in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, established in 1660 and enlarged in 1701, 1803 and 1834. It is owned by the City of Newton.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the only surviving physical link to the 17th-century origins of Newton and its early families. It also holds an excellent record of New England gravestone carving from the 17th through 19th centuries, including work by several notable stonecutters. The form says it meets criteria A, B and C.","narrative":"East Parish Burying Ground covers about three acres at Centre and Cotton Streets in Newton Centre. Land was given in 1660 for a burying place and meeting house for Cambridge residents living south of the Charles River. The cemetery grew in 1701, 1803 and 1834, giving it an irregular outline. It was Newton's only burial ground until 1781, so nearly every early family has at least one member interred there, including the first Town Clerk, the first schoolteacher and the first minister, John Eliot Jr. Other burials include Captain Thomas Prentice and Generals Michael Jackson and William Hull. About 340 slate markers remain in the 1660 and 1701 sections and 75 in the 1834 addition, which is laid out in a grid of family plots. The stones show death's heads, winged cherubs, portrait stones and urn-and-willow designs, with work by carvers such as William Mumford and Daniel Hastings. Because the other town facilities moved in the 1720s, the burying ground is the sole remaining trace of the settlement's beginnings.","period_of_significance":"1660-mid 1800's","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Listed as deteriorated but unaltered and on its original site; the original drive and walkways are overgrown and barely discernible. The form marks the site as unoccupied and used as a cemetery.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.509548-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/7961/63796111/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83004010.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004010/fd9c06550c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004010/fd9c06550c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Thomas Kelley from Boston, MA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Parish_Burying_Ground,_Newton,_Massachusetts.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Kelley from Boston, MA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Parish_Burying_Ground,_Newton,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796111","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Parish_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5329105"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/east-parish-burying-ground-83004010/"}