{"nrhp_refnum":"89001372","name":"Christ Church Burial Ground","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"54--60 School St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Quincy","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.24423034000006,"lon":-71.00205616299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-09-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small burial ground at 54-60 School Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, on the site of the original 1727 Anglican church building of the parish that became Christ Church. It covers 10,469 square feet and holds about seventy-five marked graves.","why_significant":"The site is significant as the location of the original building and cemetery of the First Church of England in Braintree, the oldest Episcopal parish in Quincy and the second formed in Massachusetts. Parishioners were buried here from 1727 through the post-Civil War era. The ground also holds gravestones showing a range of mortuary art and the graves of figures such as the first rector and a schoolmaster of John Adams.","narrative":"Christ Church Burial Ground occupies a square, flat lot at 54-60 School Street in Quincy, enclosed by a wrought iron fence with a gate between two granite posts. It marks the site of the first Anglican church in what was then Braintree, built in 1727 on land deeded in 1725 by William and Benjamin Veazie. The wooden church was dismantled in 1832, but its low building site and two family vaults remain, and granite foundation stones now sit beneath the fence. About seventy-five marked graves survive, with slate and marble stones dating from 1737 into the post-Civil War era. Carvings include death's-heads, cherubs, portrait effigies, urns and willows. A finely carved slate marker for Ralph Shirley, son of Royal Governor William Shirley, carries Latin and English inscriptions. Burials here include the Reverend Ebenezer Miller, the first rector, and Joseph Cleverly, a churchman and teacher of John Adams. The ground is valued for its link to the parish founded in 1689 and its record of local burial practice.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Condition is described as good; the site is enclosed by a wrought iron fence and sits next to a Catholic church on a busy street.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.25347-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/38/7926/63792638/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001372.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001372/78f48940df-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001372/78f48940df-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sswonk","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Church_Burial_Ground_Quincy_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Sswonk</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Church_Burial_Ground_Quincy_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792638","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Burial_Ground_(Quincy,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5108767"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/christ-church-burial-ground-89001372/"}