The Central Burying Ground occupies the southeastern corner of Boston Common, along Boylston Street near Tremont Street. Established in 1756, it was originally called the South Burying Ground and was created to relieve overcrowding at the city’s older graveyards, including the Granary, King’s Chapel, and Copp’s Hill. In its early years it received many of Boston’s poor, strangers, and soldiers, and it remains the only burying ground on the Common.
Among those interred here is the celebrated portraitist Gilbert Stuart, best known for his image of George Washington. The cemetery’s history has been shaped by the growth of the city around it: tombs were disturbed when Boylston Street was widened in the 1830s, and again in 1895 when the Boylston Street subway tunnel, part of the nation’s first subway, was excavated nearby. Today it is a quiet, atmospheric stop for visitors exploring the Common.
Good to know
- Free to visit; it sits within Boston Common, the oldest public park in the United States
- Founded in 1756, it is the youngest of Boston’s colonial-era burying grounds and the only one on the Common
- The painter Gilbert Stuart is buried here
- It lies along the edge of the Common near the Boylston Street subway entrance, an easy add-on to a Freedom Trail or Common visit
Getting there
- Address: Central Burying Ground, Boston Common, along Boylston Street near Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
- Neighborhood: Boston Common / Downtown Boston (bordering Back Bay and the Theater District)
- Nearest T: Boylston (Green Line); Park Street (Red and Green Lines) is also nearby