Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Old Burying Ground
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2002. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“While a divinity student he shouldered his musket and went to face the enemy at Concord and Lexington. He represented his district both in the senate and house after the war of 1812 (hi wliich three of his sons held commissions) ; on one occasion preached the election scnnon,and was a delegate to the constitiUinii;il enuveution of 1S20.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County (1880). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 2002 · category: Site · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.01001560- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
It is remarkable that the southeastern part of Littleton, now called Nashoba, w-as not a part of the Indian town, but was very early settled by white people and called Nashoba Farm. A family by the name of Shepard was living there in 1676, during King Philip's War. Tradition says that, in February of that year, Mary Shepard, a girl of fifteen, was stationed on Quagana Hill, a small rising south of Nashoba Hill, to warn her brothers, who were threshing, if any Indians" appeared ; but they stole up behind her, killed the brothers, and carried the girl away to Nashaway [Lancaster], from which place she escaped the same night, mounted a horse, swam the river, and rode home. The Reed house, the ruins of which may still be seen at the foot of Nashoba Hill, was built as a garrison probably about this time.
The name Littleton was given to the town by act of the General Court, December 3, 1715 (a date which has been erroneously given for the incorporation), as a compliment, it is said, to the Hon. George Lyltleton, M. P., one of the commissioners of the treasury, in return for which the noble gentleman presented the town with a church bell ; but on account of an error in spelling, by substituting "i" for "y," the present was withheld, with the excuse that no such town as Lyttleton could be found, and was sold by the person having it in charge. The first recorded townmeeting, for the choice of officers, was held March 13, 1715-16; the selectmen chosen were Samuel Dudley, John Perrum, John Cobleigh, Moses Whitney, and William Powers. On the 9th of May following, the Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, A. M., was chosen minister for the town, at a salary of £55 a year, to advance 'IQs a year until it amounted to £70.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 40 fires within 5 miles of Old Burying Ground between
2015 and 2020, burning about 32 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
26
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
9
Railroad operations and maintenance
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Recreation and ceremony
1
Natural
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 527 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Old Burying Ground between 1898 and
1975: 311 Animalia, 129 Plantae, 57 Fungi, 27 Protozoa, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
13 workings within 5 miles of Old Burying Ground: 7 past producers, 4 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 plant.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite, Graphite. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Littleton, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning, 1 funnel cloud.
The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
A peak wind gust to 58 mph during a thunderstorm was recorded by the Littleton Police Dept. Pea-size hail reportedly covered the ground in Westford and pea- to marble-size hail was reported in Groton.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
10,210 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing) Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. - B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. Art Community Planning and Development Social History X C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or that represent the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.
D Property has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history, Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply) Property is: A owned by religious institution or used for religious purposes Period of Significance 1721 -1909 Significant Dates 1721 Significant Person: (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) - B removed from its original location Cultural Affiliation - C a birthplace or grave X D a cemetery Architects/Builders N/A _ E a reconstructed building, object, or structure - F a commemorative property G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets) 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 01001560, 45 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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