| East Parish Burying Ground | |
| Location: | Centre Street, Newton Corner, Massachusetts |
| Area: | 2.9acres |
| Built: | 1660s |
| Added: | December 23, 1983 |
| Refnum: | 83004010 |
East Parish Burying Ground, also known as Centre Street Burying Ground or Centre Street Cemetery, is an historic cemetery located at Centre and Cotton streets in the village of Newton Corner in the city of Newton, Massachusetts. On December 23, 1983, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been called the "most important, the most evocative and also the most fragile historic site in the city."[1]
East Parish Cemetery dates from the 1660s when the term parish had both a political and religious connotation. The East Parish Church was First Church in Newton organized in 1664, which celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1964, but was dissolved in 1973 after failed attempts to merge with its two daughter churches, Second Church in Newton (West Parish) and Eliot Church. First Church's last church building at 1115 Centre Street in Newton Centre is now the Greek Evangelical Church of Boston.[2] [3]
The First Settlers Monument was erected September 1, 1852, to commemorate the first settlers of East Parish and has inscriptions on its four sides as follows:[4]
East Parish Burying Ground fronts on Centre Street on the west and on Cotton Street on the south, but the actual corner of those two streets is occupied by city-owned Loring Park, a long, narrow tract of 13200square feet, whose longest side fronts on Centre Street. East Parish burying ground is bordered on the north and east by lands of the Centre Street congregation of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Across Centre Street is the campus of the former Newton College of the Sacred Heart, which is now owned by Boston College, which uses the campus for its Law School as well as to house freshmen. Cotton Street is the approximate boundary between Newton Corner to the north and Newton Centre to the south.
East Parish Burying Ground is owned today by the City of Newton, which lists it as Centre Street Cemetery with an area of 125620square feet. Historic Newton manages the preservation of the graves and tombs of Newton's City-owned historic burying grounds.[5]