Granary Burying Ground
Resting place of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and the victims of the Boston Massacre
The story
Before you is the Granary Burying Ground, opened in 1660. It is named for the granary that stood next door, which held twelve thousand bushels of grain. The burying ground was once part of the Common, and the cows grazing nearby kept the grass short. There are about two thousand three hundred grave markers here, but more than five thousand Bostonians are buried. In Victorian times the stones were rearranged into neat rows to make room for a new invention of the day, the lawn mower. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence lie here: John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine. Paul Revere is buried toward the back. At his grave a large nineteenth-century marker stands beside a small, older slate stone. Next to Samuel Adams’s stone is the grave of the victims of the Boston Massacre. The obelisk in the center was raised in 1827 for the parents of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin himself was born in Boston but is buried in Philadelphia. Look closely at the old headstones. The Puritans allowed no religious images in their churches, so they expressed their faith in stone. The favorite motif was a winged skull, the soul flying up to heaven. You will also find the Grim Reaper and Father Time, carved scrolls and poems.
Visiting
120 Tremont Street, next to Park Street subway station. Free entry. Open daily, roughly from 9:00 to 16:00.
Photos
Sources
- The Freedom Trail Foundation — Granary Burying Ground
- City of Boston — Historic Burying Grounds Initiative
- Wikipedia (EN) — Granary Burying Ground
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