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The Phipps Street Burial Ground

One of the city's oldest burial grounds, it features memorials to several of the owning class settlers of the Boston area.

The Phipps Street Burial Ground is the oldest cemetery in Charlestown and is one of Boston's seven burying grounds that date back to the 17th Century.

There are 1,549 gravestones, tombs and monuments, all arranged in irregular sections and family plots. Some say family grave stones were grouped on the part of the hill which faced the original family home.

After the burning of Charlestown in 1775, stones were rearranged and new paths were laid out. Fortunately, the burial ground resisted a 19th Century "beautification" plan to straighten all stones into neat rows.

The burial ground was named after Solomon Phipps, a Charlestown farmer and land owner. Phipps was born in England in 1619 and settled in Charlestown in 1642. He raised cattle on the hill. He and his wife Elizabeth Wood had nine children. Phipps died in 1671.

The most prominent memorial in the burial ground is to John Harvard, who died in 1638. The 15-foot obelisk, designed by Solomon Willard, who also designed the Bunker Hill Monument, was erected in 1828. Harvard’s original marker is gone so that the exact location of his grave site is unknown.

The oldest stones, for the most part, have only the name, age and date of death.  There are markers for Ebenezer Breed and stones for the Bunker family. Rebecca Thoreau, grandmother of Henry David Thoreau, is buried here, as well as Nathaniel Gorham, a signer of the Constitution, president of the Continental Congress and one-time owner of outdoor rope walks in Charlestown.

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An unidentified "Charlestown Carver" carved a large number of the head stones in the Phipps ground, mostly of slate, marble sandstone, basalt and granite. At the Museum of Fine Arts, in the New American Wing, is a small exhibit about the "Charlestown Carver." Go to Gallery LG36 and ask to see the footstone of John Foster.

  • Where is it?
    Phipps Street and Lawrence Street
  • When was it designated?
    Between 1630 and 1640
  • Who built it?
    The founders of Charlestown designated the land as the town’s burying place.
  • What was it built for and who was the first deceased buried there? As burial ground. Earliest gravestone is for Maud Russell, dated 1652.
  • Why was it built?
    There was no designated burial spot for residents. Before Phipps Burial Ground Charlestown residents were probably buried near a marketplace in the town.
  • How was it built? On a rising knoll known as Burial Hill, originally bordered by marsh. The Charles River washed up on the rear side of the hill.
  • What are the future plans for the structure? 
    The 76,740 square foot Phipps Street Burying Ground is permanently locked and only opened on request. The City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department maintains the grounds. The Charlestown Preservation Society annually sponsors a clean-up day in May during Preservation Month and welcomes vounteers to visit this extraordinary cultural treasure.

Information for this article was compiled from Report of the Historic Burial Grounds Inventory Project, sponsored by a grant from the Charlestown Preservation Society www.charlestownpreservation.org; various web sites, including www.cityofboston.gov.

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