King's Chapel Burying Ground, Historical cemetery in Downtown Boston, United States.
King's Chapel Burying Ground is a historic site and cemetery in downtown Boston, United States. The grounds spread across a tidy city block with rows of weathered slate gravestones standing between paved walkways and scattered trees.
The site began in 1630 as the first official burial place for the young settlement and remained the only option for interments in the city for three decades. During the 18th century the grounds expanded southward, and the adjacent chapel was built on part of the original land.
The burial ground takes its name from the chapel that was later built beside the site, though the graves predate the building itself. Visitors today walk the pathways between the headstones to study the different lettering styles and symbols on the markers, which reveal information about colonial burial customs.
The entrance lies on Tremont Street between School Street and Park Street, and the pathways are open for visitors during daylight hours. You can walk close to the headstones, but watch your step as many stones lean or have loosened over time.
Some headstones carry skull motifs and angel wings that shifted in style over the decades, reflecting changing Puritan views on death. The arrangement of graves is uneven because the oldest sections were gradually altered by later burials, with new markers sometimes replacing earlier ones.
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