Central Burying Ground, Boston

Central Burying Ground
Central Burying Ground, Boston Common, 2008
Map
Details
Established1756 (1756)
Location
Boylston Street, Boston Common, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

The Central Burying Ground is a cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established on Boston Common in 1756. It is located on Boylston Street between Tremont Street and Charles Street.

Famous burials there include the artist Gilbert Stuart, painter of the famed portraits of George Washington and Martha Washington, and the composer William Billings, who wrote the famous colonial hymn "Chester." Also buried there are Samuel Sprague and his son, Charles Sprague, one of America's earliest poets. Samuel Sprague was a participant in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the American Revolutionary War.[citation needed]

When the Tremont Street subway was under construction in the 1890s, burials were discovered in the area abutting the cemetery. These were reinterred in a mass grave within the bounds of the burying ground.[citation needed]