Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

Located at the end of the Freedom Trail in the North End. Good place to stop and take on the rest of the Freedom Trail in Charlestown another day. Good signage about the cemetery. The cemetery is in fact, on a hill which probably had a great view of the area before it all got built up by home all around the Ground. Always interesting to look around.
No admission charge. Fewer tourists here due to the comparatively remote location.

This burying ground on the Freedom Trail has a wonderful location up on a hill with a nice view towards Bunker’s Hill. There was some fascinating signage about how this location and height caused it to be used by the British in part of the battles to bombard Breed’s Hill. It is also the burial location for about 10 or 11,000 folks, despite the fact that there are only about 2,200 headstones surviving today. I recommend at least skimming some of the signage — it really enhances your visit.

One of the reasons why I loved this Burying Ground was the beautiful view! The view is absolutely breathtaking and you can see the Bunker Hill memorial!
While this Burying Ground doesn’t have the many names that the Granary Burial Ground and King’s Chapel Burying Ground, it still has a lot of history! Roam around and read the tombstones to get an idea of how people were back then. It gives you a glimpse of how they viewed death.

Copp’s hill is in great condition and I highly recommend it if you’re into history or old cemeteries. There are lots of headstones and signs giving information about the cemetery. It’s a pretty peaceful place to walk around and look.
It’s also in a great area to get something to eat while exploring the city.

If you’re in to history, this is the place. The Mather family is buried here, most famously Increase and Cotton Mather. Nice clean to feel the place with not a lot of crowds and a chance to enjoy the history.

Wenn man den Freedom Trail auf der Hull Street entlang schreitet, kommt man unweigerlich auch am bekannten Bostoner Friedhof Copp’s Hill Burying Ground vorbei.
Der Friedhof wurde im Jahre 1659 gegründet, 1758 und 1809 erweitert und befindet sich auf dem Copp’s Hill. Er beinhaltet Ruhestätten einiger bekannter Bostoner Bürger aus der Kolonialzeit, aber auch Kaufleute und Handwerker die im North End ihr Zuhause hatten. Zur Snow Hill Street hin befinden sich viele unmarkierte Gräber von Afroamerikanern, die damals in der Gegend ebenfalls lebten.
Im 19. Jahrhundert ist der Friedhof ein wenig in Vergessenheit geraten ist aber heute Bestandteil des Freedom Trail und ist bei vielen Besuchern sehr beliebt. Der Copp’s Hill Burying Ground ist seit 1974 in das National Register of Historic Places aufgenommen worden.
Die alten amerikanischen Friedhöfe sehen irgendwie immer ein wenig gespenstisch aus. An einigen Grabsteinen sind die Inschriften noch einigermaßen gut lesbar. An einer Schautafel kann man noch einiges wissenswertes über den Friedhof erfahren.
Für diesen schönen historischen Friedhof sollte man ruhig ein wenig Zeit zur Besichtigung einplanen.

To me you’re better off visiting Granary than this one. Especially, if you are limited on time. You get the same kind of feel form both locations, but more famous people were buried at the other site.

Visiting cemeteries aren’t weird when they’re historic like Copp’s Hill. Some of the oldest headstones in Boston. Burial place for Cotton Mather and sons. Pretty cool.

This graveyard houses some olddd bodies beneath cool headstones.

Yay another graveyard full of people I have no clue who the hell they are… Better known as another stop on the Boston Freedom Trail. I stopped here while traipsing more to let the munchkin take a quick respite and rest than anything else. A lot of standardized tombstones, and I didn’t notice anyone of note.
Pro Tip: Its downhill for a ways after this stop on the freedom trail. Its literally on the top of Copps Hill.
Scenic vistas may be seen and it provides a bit of shade in the summer sun. If its winter, well yeah I guess it just allow the billing snow to fly more unimpeded into you =\ Definitely a spot to take a break as the munchkin and I did. But otherwise, it is just another graveyard on the Freedom Trail and worth a stop for that reason alone I suppose. The vistas do help a bit though I might add.

I have some stupid fascination with graveyards, but it’s boston, and the graves here are important, so i think it’s allowed. Pretty view, lots of important people, and some not so. are here. good history.

Went the other night with my kids and wife but it was fenced, locked and closed tight.
I guess everyone’s just dying to get in…

Sitting on a hill overlooking Charlestown and the Zakim Bridge, the location is quite impressive. It’s right down the street from the Old North Church and directly across from the Skinny (Spite) House. The last time I was here was over ten years ago and visiting today I was surprised at the overall condition of the headstones from what I remembered. I know that some are well over 300 years old, but it seems the past ten years have been the harshest. Most were made of thin slabs of stone, not granite, and have eroded and cracked to the point that they are difficult to read, although you can still see winged skulls with their hollow eyes and grinning teeth. Rubbing the stones is not allowed — I think they would crumble if you did. The winters here are hard and the weight of snow and ice has taken its toll.
If you have a chance to come to Boston, come visit this little piece of history before it is lost completely to time.

One of my favorite spots in Boston. Grab food in the North End and then wander up here; Old North Church is along the way. Gorgeous late in the day in the fall, when the leaves are at the peak of color– I’ve taken some incredible pictures in early October. You can see the harbor and parts of the city from up here because it really is up on a hill. Highly recommended– you feel like a part of history walking around here.

Definitely stop here after the Old North Church. You won’t find as many famous historical figures as the Granary here but this graveyard seems to get more sunlight than the other one and so it’s quite beautiful.

It was an incredible pain in the butt to figure out where to park. We drove around for an HOUR before finally finding a valet parking garage and paying $ 9 for 45 minutes of parking. Practically every on-​street parking spot we found was marked «residents only». I don’t know if all of Boston is like this, but we found it very aggravating!
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest: the cemetery is quite lovely. It’s small but well maintained and has various placards around with historical info. I also enjoyed the spontaneous company of a feline attendant who made sure to get in all of our photographs. ;)

«There’s no use in my trying to tell you what they were like, because the awful, the blasphemous horror, and the unbelievable loathsomeness and moral foetor came from simple touches quite beyond the power of words to classify. There was none of the exotic technique you see in Sidney Sime, none of the trans-​Saturnian landscapes and lunar fungi that Clark Ashton Smith uses to freeze the blood. The backgrounds were mostly old churchyards, deep woods, cliffs by the sea, brick tunnels, ancient panelled rooms, or simple vaults of masonry. Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, which could not be many blocks away from this very house, was a favourite scene.»
–H.P. Lovecraft, «Pickman’s Model»
Plan your route to visit carefully. Anyone wishing to drive and park is torn apart and fed to ghouls.

How do you rate and review a cemetery?
First, I lived close by for several years and never saw ghosts. I don’t think it is remotely spooky. I do think it is clean and has a strong historical value. It is less crowded than other cemeteries in Boston so it’s easier to feel that history.

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground has that grim New England air one can often find in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and HP Lovecraft. It has the perfect atmosphere for a creepy scene involving dour Puritans, intoning on mankind’s sins as the winter snow slowly trickles down.
Copp’s Hill Burying Ground is not like the fancier Auburn Cemetery in Lowell (that also has a fancier name) It shows its age and decay. It is also the final resting place of famous preachers like Increase and Cotton Mather, whose fire&brimstone sermons left the early New Englanders in shock&awe.
Copp’s Hill Burying Ground is a very energetic place (not solely on account of the tourists) Unlike a regular park, one feels that there are others there though unseen. The Puritans and the Pilgrims may have made their way into the history books, but in this place, they are very much with us.

Copp’s is my favorite of the old burying grounds in Boston. My all-​time favorite would be Mt. Auburn across the Charles River. The main reason this place is worth peeking at– it isn’t packed like King’s Chapel or Granary Burial Ground by Park Street. Since this is further from the city center, not that many tourist reach here. That means more cemetery for you! Whoohoo! No one to disturb you as you try to make out headstones and find your WASPy ancestors. Plus, from here, you can see the Bunker Hill Memorial (without crossing the bridge in the winter) and get a glimpse of the USS Constitution.
Of note, make sure you check out the grave Prince Hall, the founder of the African American branch of the Masons. Cambridge is looking to put up their own shrine to Prince Hall soon, but this is where he’s really resting in peace. In honor of Mather Lather next weekend, I would also like to point out, especially to all you Harvard folks, that Increase and Cotton Mather (the namesakes of Mather House, Harvard College) are both buried here. There’s an old family tomb here with a few new markers that actually haven’t faired that much better than the old ones. The Mathers are in the far right corner of the grave yard.
Today, I noticed one of those annoying Ghosts and Gravestones tours with the souped up trolleys doing a tour of the burial grounds today. Never done a tour, but it would be interesting to know what they say about the place. I’m sure it isn’t as haunted as the Old North Church (of Revere fame) just down the street, which has more than 1000 bodies buried under it (no kidding)! Now let me just rant a little. If you believe in ghosts, the North End would be filled with so many spirits that it would have the density of Tao on a Saturday night. They would all have to live in massive tenement high rises and build ghostly infrastructure to sustain them all… unless you believe their energy can all occupy the same finite space… anyways tangent.
Before you leave the burying ground, check out the thin house diagonally across the entrance. It’s a spite house (house built to spite someone else) and the narrowest house in Boston. Cool, eh?

Spooky little graveyard near the North End.
Also right near where the molasses thing exploded years ago.
Anyhow — there are a lot more people buried here than the # of headstones you see. That’s cause back in the day, if you wanted a nice headstone but couldn’t afford it, you’d pay the gravedigger to bury you under someone else’s headstone. They’d dig up the grave, stomp down the bones of the person who was there, and throw you on top. Also — see that stone table? Well, if you lift up the top you’ll find decrepit stairs running to underground caverns full of dead people. Also — a tunnel leading to the harbor where they used to smuggle in people, booze, etc.
Nice huh?

Snoop Dogg once said «And I ain’t even swingin’ them things; I holla 187 wit’ my d**k in yo’ mouth, beeyoch.»
Uh, sorry. For #187, I’d like to take you to my favorite dead spot in Boston. By the time you reach Copps on the Freedom Trail, you’re hot, tired, and probably full from stuffing pizza slices and cannolis into your fat tourist face (and I’m talking about me here, folks… not necessarily you). Copps Hill, aside from being a neat burial ground, is a nice place to stop for a rest before you plod onward to the USS Enterprise… I mean, Constitution, where Mr. Spock will show you the Old Ironsides of yesteryear. It’s well shaded with a few nice places to sit.
On the north side of the graveyard, you can see where the Brits came in and took shots at the gravestones for artillery practice during the Revolutionary War.
Copps Hill is just a short, quiet respite from the craziness of walking the Freedom Trail. Enjoy it for a bit, but don’t linger too long. The ghost of Increase Mather has been known to haunt and terrorize unsuspecting tourists by giving them long, boring sermons about the tortures of hellfire and brimstone.