Overview

Established as Brookline's first burying ground in 1717 on a half acre of land. Served as the town's only burying ground for a hundred and forty years. Enlarged by three quarter acres and redesigned as a rural cemetery in 1840. Active use spans two hundred years.

Notable interments include: Mary Boylston (1722), great-grandmother of President John Adams; Anna Mather (1737), second wife of Puritan minister Increase Mather; Edward Devotion (1744), benefactor of Brookline schools; Zabdiel Boylston (1766), pioneer of smallpox inoculation; Samuel Philbrick (1859), abolitionist; and Francis Channing Barlow (1896), Civil War General and New York State Attorney General. A monument to Hugh Walker Ogden (1938), World War I Colonel and presider over hearings on the Boston 1919 molasses disaster is also present.

Additional Information

Old Stones (Old Burying Ground section, mostly before 1820)

Burials and Inscriptions (compiled in 1920)

History - Guide booklet by the Friends of the Old Burying Ground (2006)

History - Brookline Historical Society presentation (1901)

Preservation Plan (Massachusetts Historic Cemeteries Preservation Initiative, 1999)

Conservation Work by Fannin-Lehner