{"nrhp_refnum":"87000283","name":"Ancient Burying Ground","other_names":["Phinney's Lane Cemetery"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Phinney's Ln.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Barnstable","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.65482448200004,"lon":-70.34333713399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-03-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A town-owned colonial-era cemetery on Phinney's Lane in Centerville, a village of Barnstable, Massachusetts, also called the Phinney's Lane Cemetery. It covers about 0.75 acres and holds roughly 186 gravestones.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the only surviving non-residential part of Centerville's original 18th-century settlement center. It is also significant for the artistic quality of its gravestones, which show the full range of 18th and 19th century types. It meets criteria A and C.","narrative":"Phinney's Lane Burying Ground, also called the Ancient Burying Ground, is the oldest cemetery in Centerville, a village of Barnstable, Massachusetts. Owned by the town, it occupies about three-quarters of an acre beside the site of the village's first schoolhouse. Roughly 186 gravestones remain, the oldest marking Jonathan Hamblen, who died in 1743 at age 74. Burials continued into the 1970s. Early markers are mostly rectangular slate plates carved with death-heads, followed by winged angels; later 19th-century stones in granite or marble display urns and sweeping branches. Several memorials record men who died at sea. The cemetery is valued as the only surviving non-residential element of Centerville's original 18th-century settlement center, and for the artistic quality of its stones, which span the full range of 18th and 19th century types. A survey in the 1970s found its condition fair, with some markers breaking and about thirty fallen.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Condition described as fair: some markers are breaking and are not being repaired; about 30 stones have fallen. Most recent burial 1976.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.885735-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/23/7891/63789123/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/87000283.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000283/443248ac8f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000283/443248ac8f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BarnstableMA_AncientBuryingGround.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">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:BarnstableMA_AncientBuryingGround.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789123","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Burying_Ground","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4752808"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/ancient-burying-ground-87000283/"}