Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. 19 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1887.
One of 686 National Register listings published here for Worcester County · listed in 2007 · category: Site.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
The ground this property stands on, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
The chapter on Bolton Town in History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names Bolton. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
The town of Bolton is located in the eastern part of the county and is bounded as follows : on the north by Harvard, on the east by the towns of Hudson and Stow, on the south by Berlin and Hudson, and on the west by Clinton and Lancaster. Bolton originally formed a portion of Berlin, and was incorporated as a district of Berlin in March, 1738. It was incorporated as a town February 6, 1812, and named in honor of Charles Powlet, third Duke of Bolton.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.
The town retained its original boundaries until 1868, when about two square miles of the most populous portion of Bolton was annexed to the town of Hudson, in Middlesex County. The inhabitants of the annexed portion continned to vote in this town in State and national elections until 1876.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Bolton Town - 3,062 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 113 fires within 5 miles of Pan Burying Ground between 2004 and 2020, burning about 123 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 were 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 | 62 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 19 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 20 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 20 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 14 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 12 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,960 specimens collected within 10 miles of Pan Burying Ground between 1858 and 1974: 1,208 Animalia, 500 Plantae, 243 Fungi, 5 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. G. Chandler, A. Pinkham 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.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook. | 1899 | E. F. Williams | |
 | Quercus velutina Lam. | 1858 | E. S. Hoar | Road to Marlboro, Concord. |
 | Condylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1859 | E S Wheeler | BERLIN |
 | Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832) | 1861 | not recorded | Bolton |
| Clemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 1835 | 1864 | Agassiz | ||
 | Bromus sterilis L. | 1879 | C. E. Faxon | |
 | Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1881 | G. L. Brigham | Bolton |
| Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W. | 1881 | T. F. Allen | Nashua River | |
| Arphia sulphurea (Fabricius, 1781) | 1892 | unknown | Wellesley | |
 | Castilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng. | 1892 | E. C. Smith | Marboro. |
| Tyrannus tyrannus (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1892 | G.L. Brigham | Bolton | |
| Dendroica virens virens (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) | 1893 | G.W. Whitcomb | Littleton |
All 1,960 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Pan Burying Ground: 14 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin Stone Co Quarry | Stone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Gneiss Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Bates Sand and Gravel Co. | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Berin Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Berlin Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Berlin Town Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Bolton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Casaceli Trucking | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Casaceli Trucking Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Hudson Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bolton, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bolton | $10,000 | In Bolton, two trees were down on a truck. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bolton | $5,000 | In Bolton, a tree was down on a car occupied by a person on Main St. |
| November 2021 | Flood | South Bolton | $5,000 | In Bolton, there was a public report (via MPING) of a river/creek overflowing with cropland/yard/basement flooding. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bolton | $5,000 | Trees on Brook Street were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| September 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bolton | $3,000 | In Bolton, 5-6 trees were snapped in a straight line along Rt 117/Main St. |
| August 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bolton | $2,500 | Between 2 PM and 205 PM EST, a tree and wires were brought down on Long Hill Road in Bolton, and a tree was down on Teele Road in Bolton. |
| August 2021 | Tornado (EF0) | East Bolton | $2,000 | In Bolton, a small, brief tornado touched down, causing minor damage between roughly 175 and 198 Main Street. One tree was knocked down onto wires and a large branch was ripped from another tree. It is believed that a funnel cloud initially formed a short distance to the southeast of where the damage was observed, and as it moved northwest, it briefly touched down. Radar data indicated rotation associated with a shower that moved over the area to be very similar to what was observed with the Marlborough tornado a short while earlier. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | East Bolton | $500 | In Bolton, a tree was down on Sugar Road. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Bolton | - | At 419 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported dime-size hail at Bolton. |
United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Pan Historic District | 0.5 miles | 2018 |
 | Bolton Center Historic District | 0.8 miles | 1997 |
 | Whitcomb Inn and Farm | 1.1 miles | 2002 |
| East End Historic District | 1.4 miles | 2025 | |
 | Felton Street School | 2.8 miles | 1986 |
| Eastwood Cemetery (Additional Documentation) | 3.3 miles | 2024 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 07000682 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Worcester County | All 686 listed properties in this county. |
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