Salem Street Burying Ground
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Salem Street Burying Ground
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Marker for New Hampshire's fallen in the Battle of Bunker Hill
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| Location | Medford Square |
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| Nearest city | Medford, Massachusetts |
| Coordinates | 42°25′5.42″N 71°6′27.41″W / 42.4181722°N 71.1076139°WCoordinates: 42°25′5.42″N 71°6′27.41″W / 42.4181722°N 71.1076139°W |
| NRHP reference # | 81000115 |
| Added to NRHP | August 27, 1981 |
Salem Street Burying Ground is a cemetery located at the intersection of Salem Street and Riverside Avenue in Medford, Massachusetts. The Salem Street Burying Ground was used exclusively from the late 17th century to the late 19th century for the burial of the town's wealthy. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The Salem Street Burying Ground was originally the private cemetery of the Wade family. It was acquired by the town of Medford in May 1717. The earliest stone is dated 1683 and the latest 1881. Records indicate that there are six hundred people buried there, but there are only 485 markers. There are several known reasons for this discrepancy.
During the 17th century, one gravestone often marked the burial place of several members of the same family. The final resting place of no less than four members of the Wade family is marked by a single large, brown, slate block; among the largest in the burial ground. Similarly, near the Riverside Avenue entrance of the cemetery, a flagpole and granite stone marker (pictured) commemorate the graves of several unknown Revolutionary war soldiers buried there. The marker's text reads, "In Memory of New Hampshire Soldiers who Fell at Bunker Hill Buried in this Town and Interred at this Spot."
Records also indicated that there are more than fifty slaves buried in unmarked graves in the southwest corner of the cemetery.
The cemetery and the area surrounding it were settled as a plantation owned by the absent Matthew Craddock, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1630. The land was used as a private farm and plantation for forty-five years. From 1660 to 1675, the second owner of the land, Edward Collins, broke the land up into smaller tracts which were sold individually. The purchasers, the Tufts, Bradshaw, Willis, Wade, Brooks, Francis, and Whitmore families became the founders of the town of Medford.
The largest farm in the area was owned by Jonathan Wade. When Wade died in 1689, he left the estate to his son, Dudley. It included "that little pasture called the burying place". By 1717, the Wade family plot had become the town burying ground.
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Wikipedia