Old Burial Hill

Puritan cemetery from 1638, with views over the harbour and distinctive carved headstones

Old Burial Hill, dating from 1638, is one of the oldest cemeteries in New England and has some of the best-preserved colonial headstones in Massachusetts. The carved imagery — death's heads, hourglasses, weeping willows — follows the standard Puritan iconography, but several stones are outstanding in their quality. The Susanna Jayne headstone from 1776, near the centre of the cemetery, is particularly fine.

The hill itself offers another good view point over Marblehead Harbor, and the arrangement of tilted old stones against the sky has a stark beauty. Some graves commemorate men lost at sea; the stones rarely say how. At the top of the hill is the site of the town's original meetinghouse. Walk up from the centre via Redd's Pond.

things to do sight
A story
The Susanna Jayne headstone, from 1776, is one of the most elaborately carved examples of colonial gravestone art in New England. The stone depicts a winged skull with a particularly intricate floral border — the work of a skilled carver who was doing something exceptional even by Boston standards. It has been featured in studies of early American folk art ever since.