Place: Phipps Street Burying Ground
Address: Phipps Street at Lawrence Street
Neighborhood: Charlestown
Finishing up my exploration of Charlestown on June 26, 2012, I visited the neighborhood's oldest burying ground on Phipps Street.
To visit the Phipps Street Burying Ground, ride the Orange Line to Community College and walk out to Thompson Square and up Main Street to Phipps Street. Another way is to ride bus route 92.
"This was Charlestown's first cemetery, established about 1630. Local lore has it that the irregular layout corresponded to a map of the town. Many of the stones feature the art of the "Charlestown carver," an anonymous stonecutter working in the 1660s who developed an important regional style continued by generations of the Lamson family. As the town cemetery, the tombs represent people of every class and situation, from Nathaniel Gorham, president of the Continental Congress (buried in an unmarked grave) to Prince Bradstreet, "an honest man of color.""
To learn more about the Phipps Street Burying Ground:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/hbgi/Phipps.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phipps_Street_Burying_Ground
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=91429
http://patch.com/massachusetts/charlestown/the-phipps-street-burial-ground
