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One of the Most Historic Corners of Boston
Walk down Boston’s Freedom Trail on Tremont Street, and you’ll find the Granary Burying Ground, which opened in 1660. This historic cemetery has 2,300 gravestones packed into just 2 acres of downtown Boston.
But there’s more to the story – about 5,000 people are actually buried here. The cemetery got its name from a grain storage building that once stood where Park Street Church is now.
Today, it’s Boston’s third-oldest cemetery and one of the city’s most popular spots, with over a million visitors each year exploring its rich history.
The Tale of Paul Revere’s Vanished Stone
When Paul Revere died in 1818, his family placed a simple slate headstone at his grave, carved by a local artist named Jonathan Harrington. Years later, in 1883, they replaced it with the tall monument you see today.
The original stone disappeared without a trace, though one historian, Samuel Drake, claimed he spotted it in a North End antique shop in 1893. The new monument wasn’t cheap – it cost $340, which would be about $9,000 today.
Revere had thought ahead about his final resting place, buying tomb number 206 eight years before he died.
A Burial Ground Born From Necessity
Boston faced a serious problem in 1660 – King’s Chapel Burying Ground was completely full after just 30 years of use. The city’s solution was to turn part of Boston Common into what we now call the Granary Burying Ground.
Workers hauled in more than 1,000 loads of dirt to level out the bumpy ground. At first, people called it South Burying Ground, and it looked quite different – the beautiful Egyptian-style entrance gate wasn’t added until 1840, when architect Isaiah Rogers designed it.
As Boston’s population grew from 3,000 to 17,000 residents, the burial ground expanded three times between 1660 and 1740, eventually reaching its current size of 87,000 square feet.
The Gravestone That Tells a Story
Joseph Tapping’s 1678 gravestone is one of colonial America’s most amazing monuments. It shows a detailed scene of Death and Father Time fighting over an hourglass, with Death winning the battle to remind us that everyone’s time must end.
Below this scene, there’s a fallen skeleton, while another figure points to Tapping’s epitaph, which tells us he died at age 23. The stone includes Latin phrases like “Fugit Hora” (meaning “Time Flies”), along with detailed wings and fancy curved designs called baroque scrollwork.
Master carver Daniel Hastings spent over two weeks creating this special monument, charging 12 pounds sterling – that would be about $2,000 today.
The Great Gravestone Shuffle
In 1879, Boston’s city gardener William Doogue made a decision that still causes headaches for historians. He ordered workers to move almost all the gravestones into neat rows to make mowing the lawn easier and cut down on maintenance costs.
The big problem? They didn’t move the bodies. This means about 80% of the markers now stand over the wrong graves. Workers arranged 2,345 headstones into 23 perfect rows, spacing them exactly 2.5 feet apart.
The project took three months and cost $3,500, making many prominent Boston families angry, especially descendants of the Hancocks and Adamses who protested the changes.
The Franklin Family Monument’s Story
Benjamin Franklin’s parents, Josiah and Abiah Franklin, have an impressive monument here, but it has an interesting history. Their original gravestone had crumbled away by 1827, so a group of Boston citizens, led by Mayor Josiah Quincy III, raised money for a new one.
Benjamin Franklin, despite his wealth and fame, never helped pay for a memorial to his parents during his lifetime. The citizens collected $2,000 for the tall obelisk you see today.
Some of Franklin’s political rivals criticized the grand monument, saying it was too fancy for a family known for living simply.
The Infant’s Corner
In the northwest corner of the burial ground lies a heartbreaking reminder of how dangerous childhood was in colonial times. This area, called the Infant’s Corner, holds 436 children’s graves, each marked with small stones featuring carvings of lambs – a symbol often used for children’s graves in the 1600s and 1700s.
Many of these children died during a terrible smallpox outbreak that hit Boston in 1677-1678, killing over 340 kids under age five. Among these small monuments, the oldest belongs to four-year-old Joseph Allen, who died in 1661.
These tiny markers tell us about the hard times families faced and how they remembered their lost children.
The Revolutionary Grave Robbers
During the British occupation of Boston in 1775-1776, some soldiers did something shocking – they broke into graves to get materials for the war. They discovered they could melt down the lead linings from coffins to make musket balls, getting about 80 bullets from each coffin.
Cemetery records show they broke into at least six tombs, including those of important colonists like merchant Thomas Hubbard and John Hancock’s father. No one knows exactly how many graves were disturbed.
The practice finally stopped when General Howe threatened severe punishment for any soldier caught robbing graves.
The Historic Elm’s Legacy
A massive European elm tree once ruled over the burial ground for more than 200 years, its branches spreading an impressive 60 feet wide. Sexton Robert Love planted it in 1762, and over time, its powerful roots grew around and through several tombs, even pulling some headstones right into its trunk, which grew to be 16 feet around.
When the tree caught a deadly disease in 1966, workers had to cut it down. Inside, they found three old coins: a 1744 British halfpenny, a 1767 Spanish real, and a 1773 Massachusetts penny.
By counting the tree’s rings, they learned it had lived through 204 winters in Boston.
The Masters of Memorial Art
Two skilled artists, James Foster and Daniel Hastings, created the burial ground’s finest gravestones between 1675 and 1725. They competed to make the most beautiful and detailed designs, each developing his own special style.
Foster was known for carving skull designs with very deep eye sockets, while Hastings became famous for his detailed wings and flowing designs. Their work shows how gravestone art changed from scary Puritan symbols to more elegant Georgian patterns.
These weren’t ordinary stones – they cost between 5 and 20 pounds sterling each, showing how much people valued these lasting memorials.
The Boston Massacre Memorial
Five victims of the Boston Massacre – Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr – share a special circular grave marker installed in 1858. The original wooden marker was replaced by this granite monument, paid for by wealthy Boston merchants who contributed $4,000.
Every March 5th since 1772, someone has placed five red carnations on their grave. It’s one of Boston’s oldest traditions, but nobody knows who started it or who continues it today.
The Boston Historical Society helps maintain this important memorial to these early victims of the fight for independence.
The Underground Water Challenge
A stream that once supplied water to colonial Boston still flows beneath the burial ground, causing constant problems. Ground-scanning radar studies in 2009 showed how this underground water has moved many tombs over hundreds of years.
Some graves have sunk two feet into the ground, while others are tilting at dangerous angles and need careful repairs to keep them from falling over. The Boston Parks Department spends about $50,000 every year to manage drainage problems and keep the historic tombs stable.
These stories from the Granary Burying Ground give us a fascinating look at early American life, death, and remembrance. From children’s graves to stolen coffins, from lost headstones to hidden streams, each tale helps us understand how Bostonians lived and how they honored their dead.
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