And when we type historic, we mean historic. The region is the final resting place of many, many notables, from John Adams and John Quincy Adams (and their cousin Samuel Adams, before he was resurrected as a beer brand) to Paul Revere and John Hancock to Cotton Mather and Henry James to countless veterans of wars stretching back to the Revolution and before (including British soldiers interred after fighting on behalf of the Old World empire). The cemeteries noted here are noted not only for the prestige of their occupants, but for their ages: You would be hard-pressed to find another region in the U.S. with so many burying sites stretching back nearly four centuries. Plus, the designs ain't bad, either, like the Sphinx in Cambridge's Mt. Auburn Cemetery, erected to honor Civil War dead.
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20 Historic Cemeteries of Greater Boston
Bennington Street Cemetery
This plot dating from 1838, one of the first planned open spaces of East Boston, has an unusually high number of epitaphs in foreign languages, thanks to the number of immigrants buried there.
Bunker Hill Burying Ground
Burials may have started here as early as 1801, not even 20 years after the famous battle nearby. The official founding year is 1807, though.
Central Burying Ground
Burials started here in 1754, and include those for British soldiers killed during the Revolution as well as painter Gilbert Stuart. There are also tombs housing remains disturbed during street and T construction.
Copp's Hill Burying Ground
This cemetery was laid out in 1659, though burials might have started more than 20 years before. The Mathers of ministerial fame are entombed here, as is Robert Newman, who placed the lanterns in Christ Church to warn Paul Revere.
Dorchester North Burying Ground
First laid out in 1634, it's Dorchester's oldest surviving landmark. It contains the remains, too, of as many as 40 unknown Revolutionary soldiers.
Dorchester South Burying Ground
Burials started here in 1814 to alleviate crowding at the Dorchester North Burying Ground.
Eliot Burying Ground
This is the oldest cemetery in Roxbury, with the first interment having been in 1633.
Granary Burial Ground
This cemetery teems with early American notables, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin's parents (notable for being Benjamin Franklin's parents), Samuel Adams, James Otis and five victims of the Boston Massacre.
Hawes/Union
This cemetery represents a combination of the Hawes Burying Ground, which dates from 1816, and the Union Cemetery, where burials started in 1845.
Kings Chapel Burying Ground
This is the granddaddy of Boston burial grounds, dating from 1630, and including such notables as John Winthrop, Massachusetts' first governor, and William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere.
Market Street Burial Ground
The earliest burials in this cemetery in what was then known as "Little Cambridge" date from the 1760s.
Phipps Street Burial Ground
This cemetery dates from the mid-17th century, around the time of the colonial settling of Charlestown.
South End Burying Ground
Dating from 1810, the gallows were located on the east end of this cemetery, prompting the myth that mostly pirates and other criminals were buried here. Who, exactly, is buried here, however, is difficult to determine as it was not a site for the fancy-stone-buying elite.
Walter Street Burying Ground
This cemetery dates from the second decade of the 1700s, and includes a single tomb for Revolutionary soldiers.
Westerly Burying Ground
Established in 1683, this cemetery became the burial ground for the then-Town of West Roxbury.
Old Burying Ground
The first grave here dates from 1653, and, because it was the only burying ground in Cambridge for about 200 years, it contains more than 1,200 resting places.
Mount Auburn Cemetery
This cemetery includes more than 900 people who served during the Civil War. The big sphinx statue, in fact, is a memorial to those who died in the war.
Milk Row Cemetary
This cemetery dating from 1804 is thought to include the oldest Civil War soldiers monument in the country, erected in the thick of the conflict, in 1863.
Old Burying Ground
The last interment in this cemetery dating from 1717 was as recently as 1995.
Hancock Cemetery
This was the original resting place of presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams (until they were moved across the street). It dates from 1640, and is named after the father of the Founding Father.