Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
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Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA

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Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Concord. It has an estimated 10,000 gravesites, many of local, national, and international interest. It was one of the first cemeteries in the United States to be designed to have a sylvan character and has also been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1823 it had become clear that Concord needed a third burying ground. A hilly plot was purchased not far from the Old Hill, and was named the "New Hill Cemetery". The first burial was that of Anna Robbins in 1823. It was not until 1855 that the town consecrated it as Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It now spans about 119 acres that were laid out in several phases from 1823 to 1998. The section developed in 1855 is an excellent example of the "rural" or "garden" cemetery that was designed in harmony with the natural features of the land.

Two highly visited areas are Authors Ridge, a measure of Concord's dominance of 19th century American literature, and the Melvin Memorial, "Mourning Victory". Authors Ridge gathers together, among others, the graves of Henry Thoreau (1862), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1864), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882), Louisa May Alcott (1888) and her father, Bronson Alcott (1888).

The Massachusetts Historical Commission refers to this cemetery in MACRIS as CON.802 Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

This cemetery is referred to as GR3 in the "Vital Records of Concord Massachusetts to the end of the year 1850."







Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Concord. It has an estimated 10,000 gravesites, many of local, national, and international interest. It was one of the first cemeteries in the United States to be designed to have a sylvan character and has also been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1823 it had become clear that Concord needed a third burying ground. A hilly plot was purchased not far from the Old Hill, and was named the "New Hill Cemetery". The first burial was that of Anna Robbins in 1823. It was not until 1855 that the town consecrated it as Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It now spans about 119 acres that were laid out in several phases from 1823 to 1998. The section developed in 1855 is an excellent example of the "rural" or "garden" cemetery that was designed in harmony with the natural features of the land.

Two highly visited areas are Authors Ridge, a measure of Concord's dominance of 19th century American literature, and the Melvin Memorial, "Mourning Victory". Authors Ridge gathers together, among others, the graves of Henry Thoreau (1862), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1864), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1882), Louisa May Alcott (1888) and her father, Bronson Alcott (1888).

The Massachusetts Historical Commission refers to this cemetery in MACRIS as CON.802 Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

This cemetery is referred to as GR3 in the "Vital Records of Concord Massachusetts to the end of the year 1850."







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