The Boston Parks and Recreation Department has secured a substantial federal grant aimed to carefully conserve gravestones at Dorchester North Burying Ground, a local historical site dating back to 1633. As reported by the City of Boston's official website, this funding is a portion provided by the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and commemorates the Semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of American independence. The Massachusetts Cultural Council is also contributing additional grant money to this preservation effort.
This financial boost is set to decisively restore around 150 endangered gravestones, work that is essential not just to maintain the aesthetics of the site but to also continue to educate and connect people to a seminal chapter of Boston's past. According to the official City of Boston's news release, Dorchester North is not just a repository of the city's early history but also home to the remains of its founding citizens, encompassing figures such as colonial governors and other individuals of historical significance.
The burying ground plays host to a pantheon of notable figures in local and national history. Among them are two colonial governors, including William Stoughton, who notoriously served as Chief Justice during the Salem witch trials, and William Tailer. Additionally, the site honors the legacy of Boston's first printer John Foster, the clergyman Richard Mather, and bears witness to the final resting places for forty unknown soldiers of the Revolutionary War, as well as the graves of three African-American enslaved individuals.
Detailed information about the conservation project can be sought by reaching out to Kelly Thomas of the Historic Burying Grounds Initiative via email at [email protected], by phone at 617-961-3034, or through conventional mail addressed to the Boston Parks Department on Massachusetts Avenue.
