{"nrhp_refnum":"85003275","name":"Holyhood Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Heath St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.32008043700003,"lon":-71.16696240008318,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Roman Catholic cemetery of about 35 acres on Heath Street, south of Route 9, in Brookline, Massachusetts, laid out in 1857 under Father Joseph M. Finotti and still in use.","why_significant":"The cemetery is an example of romantic landscape cemetery planning, in the tradition begun at Mount Auburn in the 1830s, and was the first such cemetery in Brookline. Its stone chapel was designed by the well-known ecclesiastical architect Patrick Keeley. The form cites these qualities under Criterion C and a cemetery exception for design.","narrative":"Holyhood Cemetery is a 35-acre Roman Catholic burial ground on Heath Street in Brookline, laid out in 1857 by Father Joseph M. Finotti, pastor of Assumption Parish. Its curving avenues, drawn on an 1857 plan by Shedd & Edson, reflect the romantic landscape cemetery movement that began at Mount Auburn in the 1830s, and it was the first cemetery of that kind in Brookline. The terrain is hilly, with outcroppings of puddingstone and a pine grove behind the chapel. St. Joseph's Chapel, finished in 1862, was designed by New York architect Patrick Keeley in the Gothic Revival style. It is built of puddingstone with granite trim and a side tower with a broach spire, and its bell came from Boston's earlier Cathedral of the Holy Cross. A gridlike section known as the German Acre contrasts with the curved plan. Burials include John Boyle O'Reilly and Joseph P. Kennedy. Roughly 61,000 gravestones mark the grounds, and the property is valued for its design and its chapel.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Patrick Keeley (chapel); Father Joseph M. Finotti (laid out grounds); William S. Wilson (landscape gardener); James Driscoll (superintendent; builder of 1911 service building)","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival (chapel); romantic landscape cemetery plan","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Well kept up; about 61,000 gravestones, with some older monuments eroding. Burials continue to the present. An 1886 office building was scheduled for demolition in late 1985, and the 1911 service building was razed in 1985.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.344443-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/92/7926/63792692/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003275.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003275/0f5dc73c7b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003275/0f5dc73c7b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_HolyhoodCemeteryChapel.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</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:BrooklineMA_HolyhoodCemeteryChapel.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792692","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyhood_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5887020"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/holyhood-cemetery-85003275/"}