Central Burying Ground (Boston Common)

```mediawiki The Central Burying Ground, located on the Boylston Street edge of Boston Common, is the last of Boston's five colonial-era burying grounds, established in 1756 to relieve overcrowding at older sites such as the Granary Burying Ground and King's Chapel Burying Ground. It covers roughly a third of an acre and contains an estimated 1,700 grave markers, though far more individuals are interred there — historical records suggest the total number of burials runs into the thousands. Among those buried here is Gilbert Stuart, the celebrated portrait painter whose image of George Washington appears on the one-dollar bill. The site is managed today by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department and sits within Boston Common, a 50-acre park that has anchored civic life in the city since the 17th century.

Unlike King's Chapel Burying Ground (established 1630) or the Granary (1660), the Central Burying Ground was not conceived as a prestigious resting place for Boston's elite. It was, from the outset, a practical solution to a practical problem: the city needed more ground. That origin shaped its character. The markers here are often modest, the records incomplete, and the population buried beneath the grass unusually diverse — soldiers, artisans, immigrants, and at least some members of Boston's early free Black community rest here alongside figures of greater public prominence.

History

The Central Burying Ground was opened in 1756 by the Town of Boston, making it the youngest of the city's colonial burying grounds and distinguishing it from the earlier sites with which it is sometimes confused. King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston's oldest, dates to 1630; the Central Burying Ground post-dates it by more than 125 years. The land chosen was on the southern margin of Boston Common, along what is now Boylston Street, and had previously been part of the common grazing land that defined the park's early use.

Burials at the site increased sharply during and after the American Revolution. British troops occupied Boston from 1768 to 1776, and the Common itself served as a military encampment. A significant number of British soldiers who died during the occupation were buried in the Central Burying Ground, alongside American civilians and soldiers from the same period. The mixing of these populations in a single ground reflects the chaotic circumstances of the war years, when administrative distinctions about who belonged where often gave way to necessity.

By the early 19th century, the ground was effectively full. The opening of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge in 1831 — the first rural garden cemetery in the United States — gave Boston's wealthier families an alternative, and many families with means relocated remains or chose the new cemetery for subsequent burials. The Central Burying Ground continued to receive burials into the mid-19th century but at a much reduced rate. Ogden Codman's Gravestone Inscriptions and Records of Tomb Burials in the Central Burying Ground, Boston Common remains the essential primary source for burial records at the site, documenting inscriptions and tomb ownership in systematic detail and serving as a key genealogical reference for researchers tracing Boston families.

The 20th century brought neglect, then gradual recovery. Vandalism damaged many stones in the mid-century decades, and the low visibility of the site — tucked behind an iron fence along Boylston Street — meant it attracted less attention than the Granary or Copp's Hill. Restoration work accelerated in the 1990s and 2000s, with the Boston Parks and Recreation Department undertaking cleaning, re-setting of fallen stones, and documentation efforts. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Boston Landmarks Commission has jurisdiction over changes to the site.

Geography

The Central Burying Ground sits on the southern edge of Boston Common, fronting Boylston Street between Tremont Street to the east and the Park Street MBTA station entrance to the northeast. This placement — not on the northern edge, as is sometimes stated — puts it directly across from the Boylston Street shops and the entrance to the Boylston MBTA station on the Green Line. The cemetery occupies roughly a third of an acre, enclosed by a low iron fence that separates it from the pedestrian paths of the Common.

Boston Common itself covers 50 acres, making it one of the oldest public parks in the United States; it has been common land since 1634. The burying ground occupies only a small corner of that space, but its position along one of the park's busiest pedestrian edges means it's visible to a large number of daily passersby. The Frog Pond, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and the Parkman Bandstand are among the nearby features on the Common. To the north of the park sits the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill; the Park Street Church and the Granary Burying Ground are a short walk to the northeast along Tremont Street.

The terrain within the cemetery is relatively flat, though the ground along the Boylston Street side of the Common is slightly elevated above street level. The stones are arranged in loose rows, many of them leaning or partially sunken after more than two centuries. Trees — a mix of established elms and more recently planted species — provide shade over much of the ground, which contributes to the slow weathering of some of the older sandstone and slate markers.

Notable Burials

The most widely recognized individual buried at the Central Burying Ground is Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828), the Rhode Island-born portrait painter who produced more than 1,000 works during his career, including the unfinished 1796 portrait of George Washington known as the Athenaeum Portrait — the image that has appeared on the one-dollar bill since 1869. Stuart spent the last decades of his life in Boston, where he died in poverty on July 9, 1828. He was buried in the Central Burying Ground in an unmarked grave, and the exact location of his remains within the ground is not known with certainty. A commemorative marker was later installed at the site to acknowledge his burial there.

The article's original text attributed burials of Paul Revere and John Hancock to this cemetery, but those attributions are incorrect. Paul Revere is buried at the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street, as is John Hancock. Conflating the five colonial burying grounds is a common error. The Central Burying Ground does not contain the remains of either man.

Beyond Stuart, the ground holds the remains of many ordinary Bostonians whose names are less recognizable but whose lives are traceable through Codman's records: shopkeepers, mariners, tavern owners, and members of Boston's early immigrant communities. The cemetery also contains burials from the British military occupation period, including soldiers who died in the city between 1768 and 1776. Some records indicate that members of Boston's early free Black community were buried here as well, though documentation for these individuals is fragmentary and often absent from the formal record.

Gravestone Art and Burial Practices

The markers at the Central Burying Ground span roughly a century of funerary art, from the mid-18th century through the mid-19th. The earliest stones are typically carved from slate or schist and feature the iconography common to colonial New England burial grounds: winged death's heads, hourglasses, crossed bones, and, later in the 18th century, the softer cherub faces and willow-and-urn motifs that came to replace them as Puritan severity gave way to a more sentimental approach to death and memory.

The shift in gravestone imagery that's visible at sites like the Central Burying Ground tracks closely with broader changes in religious culture. The grim skull-and-crossbones imagery of the earliest markers reflects Calvinist theology's emphasis on mortality and divine judgment. By the 1760s and 1770s, soul effigies — rounder, more human faces with wings — began to appear, suggesting a gentler view of the afterlife. The willow-and-urn style, dominant by the early 19th century, drew on neoclassical influences and emphasized grief and mourning rather than terror. Visitors who look carefully at the stones in sequence can watch this evolution play out across the ground.

Many stones have suffered significant weathering, particularly those carved from the softer sandstone that was used in the 18th century. Slate markers, by contrast, have held up considerably better and often retain legible inscriptions. The Boston Parks and Recreation Department has undertaken periodic cleaning and conservation work on the most vulnerable markers, though resources for such work are constrained and the pace of deterioration at some stones outpaces the capacity for intervention.

Preservation

The Central Burying Ground is administered by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department under the city's Historic Burying Grounds Initiative, a program established to maintain the five colonial-era cemeteries and one 19th-century cemetery under municipal care. The initiative funds cleaning, stone conservation, record documentation, and public interpretation across all six sites.

Vandalism has been a recurring problem at the Central Burying Ground, as at other urban burial grounds. The low fence and open access that make the site welcoming to visitors also leave it exposed. In response, the Parks Department has worked with the Boston Police Department and community volunteers to monitor the site, particularly during late evening hours when most damage has historically occurred.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), headquartered in Boston, has long maintained an interest in the cemetery's records and has digitized portions of Codman's inscriptions volume, making the burial record more accessible to researchers working remotely. The NEHGS database for Boston cemeteries is one of the more comprehensive public resources for tracing burials at the Central Burying Ground and the city's other historic sites.

Culture

The Central Burying Ground doesn't get the same foot traffic as the Granary Burying Ground two blocks north, and that's partly a matter of marketing. The Granary is on the Freedom Trail and has the famous names — Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock — spelled out on signs visible from the sidewalk. The Central Burying Ground is quieter, less annotated, and sits behind its fence without much interpretive signage to draw in passersby. For some visitors, that's exactly the appeal.

The cemetery is nonetheless included in several walking tour itineraries focused on Boston Common and the surrounding area, and school groups studying colonial history visit regularly. The gravestone iconography alone makes it a useful teaching site: the shift from death's heads to cherubs to urns-and-willows is visible in compressed form here and offers a concrete entry point into discussions of how attitudes toward death, religion, and commemoration changed across 18th- and early 19th-century New England.

Questions about the ethics of burial ground preservation in urban settings have gained renewed attention in recent years, as cities across the country grapple with how to maintain historic cemeteries that sit on valuable land, manage the tension between public access and the dignity of burial sites, and address the often-incomplete records for marginalized communities buried in such grounds. The Central Burying Ground is part of those conversations in Boston, particularly around the documentation of Black and working-class burials that received less attention in the historical record than those of prominent white residents.

Visiting

The Central Burying Ground is open to the public year-round during daylight hours. There's no admission charge. The cemetery's entrance is on Boylston Street, along the southern edge of Boston Common, and is accessible on foot from several nearby MBTA stations: Boylston Station on the Green Line is directly across Boylston Street from the cemetery entrance, and Park Street Station (Green and Red Lines) is roughly a five-minute walk to the northeast. The MBTA's Trip Planner tool provides real-time routing from any point in the metropolitan area.

The cemetery is wheelchair accessible, with a paved path along its perimeter and a relatively flat interior. Visitors who want interpretive context can pick up materials from the Boston Common Visitor Center, operated by the Freedom Trail Foundation, which is located nearby on Tremont Street. Guided tours of Boston Common that include the Central Burying Ground depart from the visitor center on a seasonal schedule.

Those driving to the area will find limited on-street parking along Boylston and Tremont Streets, with garage parking available at the Boston Common Garage on Charles Street. The garage is the closest parking facility to the cemetery and is managed by the city. Public transit is the more practical option for most visitors, particularly on weekends and during summer months when the Common hosts large events and nearby streets are congested.

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department's website lists contact information for the Historic Burying Grounds program for researchers seeking access to burial records or information about specific interments.

Surrounding Neighborhoods

The Central Burying Ground sits at the meeting point of several distinct Boston neighborhoods, each of which contributes to the cemetery's broader context. Beacon Hill rises immediately to the north and west of Boston Common, its brick rowhouses and gas-lit streets largely unchanged in character since the 19th century. The neighborhood has been associated with Boston's political and intellectual life for two centuries — the Massachusetts State House sits at its crest on Beacon Street — and its proximity to the cemetery is a reminder of how tightly Boston's civic, political, and burial landscapes were historically intertwined.

To the east of the Common, the Theater District and Downtown Crossing are a short walk along Boylston and Tremont Streets. The Park Street Church, built in 1809, stands at the corner of Park and Tremont Streets and is one of the most photographed buildings in the city; the Granary Burying Ground is directly behind it. The juxtaposition of the two burying grounds — the Granary with its famous names and heavy tourist traffic, the Central with its quieter character and more anonymous population — captures something real about how historical memory is distributed unevenly even across adjacent sites.

The Back Bay neighborhood begins just west of the Common, past the Public Garden. Though more associated with the post-Civil War period of Boston's development than with the colonial era, it's a short walk from the cemetery and home to institutions including the Boston Public Library on Copley Square, which holds archival materials related to Boston's early history. Researchers interested in supplementing Codman's inscriptions volume with manuscript sources often combine a visit to the cemetery with time at the BPL's Special Collections department. ```