{"nrhp_refnum":"94000035","name":"Mount Wollaston Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"20 Sea St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Quincy","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.258474000000064,"lon":-70.99892040872206,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-02-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Landscape Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 51-acre city-owned rural (garden) cemetery at 20 Sea Street in Quincy, Massachusetts, laid out in 1855 in the Merrymount area and enclosed by a low granite wall.","why_significant":"The cemetery is significant locally under Criterion A for its role as Quincy's second public burial ground and for its link to the Quincy granite industry. Under Criterion C, it is an excellent example of the rural or garden cemetery movement, with many finely carved granite gravestones, mausolea and monuments, including examples of granite 'turning'. A WPA-built granite wall from 1935-1940 is a notable later feature.","narrative":"Mount Wollaston Cemetery is a 51-acre municipal burial ground on a low hill in Quincy's Merrymount area, laid out in 1855 when the older Hancock Cemetery was filling. A town committee modelled it on the rural garden cemetery type, with curving tree-lined roads and generous family plots. A low granite wall with pyramid-capped posts encloses the grounds; the present wall was built by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1940. Inside are an estimated 85,000 to 115,000 gravestones and markers, a granite office building, a row of mausolea, and war memorials including a Civil War monument of 1868 and a firemen's memorial of 1929. The cemetery was listed for its place in Quincy's history as the second public burial ground and for its ties to the local granite industry, shown in carved monuments, polished stones and large turned granite balls. It also reflects the garden cemetery movement in its design and artistry.","period_of_significance":"1855-1943","architect_builder":"Briggs Luther, Surveyor (1855); Daniel Briggs, Cemetery Planner (1855); also Luke Rideout, Charles R. Mitchell, Chester Mitchell, Florence McAuliffe, Bruce Wilder Saville, A. J. Cipollini for individual features","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Active, well-maintained cemetery to the present, with additional burials continually added; the granite walls were rebuilt and restored in 1977.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.535812-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7964/63796408/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/94000035.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000035/bf41bff7d1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94000035/bf41bff7d1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sswonk","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Wollaston_Cemetery.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:Mount_Wollaston_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796408","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Wollaston_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715732"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/mount-wollaston-cemetery-94000035/"}