Old Burying Ground

Built in 1642. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

One of 1,353 National Register listings published here for Middlesex County · listed in 2022 · category: Site · built in 1642.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

Address. Grove St., Watertown
When was it listed? February 2022
Category. site
When was it built? 1642
National Register reference number. 100007388 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

60 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 60 fires within 5 miles of Old Burying Ground between 2015 and 2020, burning about 112 acres in total. None started naturally. 26 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
Arson/incendiarism	26
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15
Recreation and ceremony	6
Debris and open burning	6
Smoking	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Equipment and vehicle use	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
8 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
2 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BROOKLINE
2 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	QUINCY

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Old Burying Ground: 5 plants, 2 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium). Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
C. J. Mabardy	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Nrc Inc--Newton, Ma.	Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium)	Plant
Us Gypsum Co--Boston	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter Co	Lead	Plant
Industrial Serv. Centers--Cambridge	Iron	Plant
Somerville Smelting Co.	Lead	Plant
Wheelock-Lovejoy--Cambridge, Ma.	Iron	Plant

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
1944 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
1946 USGS Newton quadrangle1:31680 - 3 printings
1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1954 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1956 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
1977 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
1987 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000 - 2 printings
1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Town Diner	0.1 miles	1999
Coolidge School	0.1 miles	2009
Mount Auburn Cemetery	0.5 miles	1975
Anna Day House	0.5 miles	1982
Charles River Reservation Parkways	0.6 miles	2006
John Wyeth House	0.6 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100007388 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Middlesex County	All 1353 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

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.
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.