Central Burying Ground
Along the Boylston Street edge of Boston Common, Central Burying Ground preserves a quiet part of the city’s history. Established in 1756, it became a resting place for people whose lives connected Boston to commerce, the arts, and the upheaval of the American Revolution.
Those buried here include British soldiers who died during the Revolutionary period, American patriots, and travelers who died far from home. Among them was Chow Manderien, a young Chinese sailor who died in Boston Harbor. His presence offers a reminder that the port brought people from distant places into the life of the colonial town.
The artist Gilbert Stuart is also buried here. His portraits helped establish the familiar image of George Washington, including the likeness adapted for the one-dollar bill. Composer William Billings, another notable figure associated with the burial ground, contributed to the development of an American tradition of choral music.
As Boston grew, the cemetery’s boundaries came under pressure. In 1895, workers excavating for the subway along Boylston Street uncovered human remains. These were gathered and reburied within Central Burying Ground, where a marker commemorates their relocation. The discovery revealed how earlier burials extended into land being reshaped for modern transportation.
The cemetery consequently holds two connected histories: the lives of those buried there and the changing city around them. Its gravestones and tombs belong to an earlier Boston, while the nearby streets and subway reflect the demands of a growing metropolis.
Within the Common, this small enclosure preserves a place for people whose individual stories might otherwise disappear beneath the city’s better-known landmarks. Soldiers, artists, sailors, and ordinary residents share a landscape that has survived nearly three centuries of change.
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