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Examining Nineteenth-Century Urban-Cemetery Relocations: Two Cemetery Sites from the Roxbury Section of Boston, Massachusetts

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Abstract

The Kearsarge-Warren Avenue and St. Joseph’s cemeteries were 19th-century burial grounds located approximately one-third of a mile apart in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts. Both were used for several decades: Kearsarge from 1818 to 1883 as a Protestant parish and later a city-owned cemetery, and St. Joseph’s from ca. 1846 to ca. 1884 as a Catholic parish cemetery. Both were supposedly relocated by the end of the 19th century, but recent archaeological investigations revealed that few of the interred actually had been relocated from either cemetery despite the removal of markers and tombs, the cemeteries’ disappearance from city maps, and a collective city memory of their complete relocations. This article examines this phenomenon and its implications for other regional 19th-century urban-cemetery relocations.

Resumen

Los cementerios de Kearsarge-Warren Avenue y St. Joseph eran cementerios del siglo XIX ubicados aproximadamente a un tercio de milla de distancia en la sección de Roxbury de Boston, Massachusetts. Ambos se usaron durante varias décadas: Kearsarge de 1818 a 1883 como parroquia protestante y luego como cementerio de propiedad de la ciudad, y St. Joseph desde ca. 1846 a ca. 1884 como cementerio parroquial católico. Ambos supuestamente fueron reubicados a fines del siglo XIX, pero investigaciones arqueológicas recientes revelaron que pocos de los enterrados en realidad habían sido reubicados de cualquiera de los cementerios a pesar de la eliminación de marcadores y tumbas, la desaparición de los cementerios de los mapas de la ciudad y una memoria colectiva de la ciudad de sus traslados completos. Este artículo examina este fenómeno y sus implicaciones para otras reubicaciones regionales de cementerios urbanos del siglo XIX.

Résumé

L'Avenue Kearsarge-Warren et les cimetières de St. Joseph furent des lieux d'inhumation au 19ème siècle, situés à environ cinq cents mètres de distance l'un de l'autre dans la section Roxbury de Boston, Massachusetts. Les deux sites furent utilisés pendant plusieurs décennies : Kearsarge entre 1818 et 1883 comme cimetière paroissial protestant, plus tard sous le contrôle de la ville, et St. Joseph entre 1846 et 1884 environ en tant que cimetière paroissial catholique. Les deux sites ont semble-t-il été déplacés à la fin du 19ème siècle, mais des fouilles archéologiques récentes ont mis en lumière que peu des personnes inhumées avaient été effectivement déplacées à partir des cimetières en dépit du retrait des pierres tombales et des tombes, de la disparition des lieux d'inhumation sur les cartes de la ville et d'une mémoire collective de la ville quant à leurs complets déplacements. Cet article s'intéresse à ce phénomène ainsi qu'à ses implications pour d'autres transferts au 19ème siècle de cimetières urbains dans la région.

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Acknowledgments:

I would first like to thank Holly Herbster, who served as PAL’s senior archaeologist and principal investigator for both the St. Joseph’s Cemetery and Kearsarge Cemetery projects, for her assistance with the research on the Kearsarge Cemetery that became the core of this article and her commentary on the article’s draft manuscript. Thanks are also due to PAL senior archaeologist Joseph N. Waller, Jr., and Gray & Pape senior principal investigator Kristen Heitert for their comments on the draft manuscript, to PAL president Deborah C. Cox for her support in preparing the manuscript for publication, and to Jane Miller, Gail Van Dyke, and Dana Richardi of the PAL production department for their assistance in generating the graphics for the article. I would also like to thank Boston city archaeologist Joseph Bagley, Massachusetts Historical Commission staff archaeologists Jonathan Patton and Edward Bell, the Archdiocese of Boston, Daedalus Projects, Inc., and Paradigm Properties, LLC, for their help with, support of, and review of the archaeological investigations at the two Roxbury cemetery sites. Finally, I would like to thank the PAL field crew, particularly Sean Lüttge, Kirk Van Dyke, Mike Duffin, Gregg Laskoski, and Erin Flynn, for their efforts during the fieldwork at the two cemeteries.

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  1. The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., 26 Main Street, Pawtucket, RI, 02860-4105, U.S.A.

    John M. Kelly

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Kelly, J.M. Examining Nineteenth-Century Urban-Cemetery Relocations: Two Cemetery Sites from the Roxbury Section of Boston, Massachusetts. Hist Arch 57, 727–742 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00407-1

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