Hillside Cemetery
National Register of Historic Places

Hillside Cemetery

North Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Listed
July 18, 2001
Type
Site
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
01000722

About this property

Hillside Cemetery is a historic cemetery on West Main Street (Massachusetts Route 2) between Brown Street and Charles Street in North Adams, Massachusetts, United States. Located on the western fringe of the city, the earliest portions of the cemetery date to 1798; it is the community's oldest public burying ground. The cemetery is divided by Route 2, with the older section to the north and the younger section (laid out in 1858) to the south. The cemetery's location at the foot of Mount Greylock gives it excellent views of the surrounding area, and of the urban core of North Adams. The older portion of the cemetery is less formally laid out than the newer section. It includes a fairly steeply sloped hill and a bowl-shaped valley, and is lined by grassy paths laid out in a grid. The oldest graves are at the top of the hill, the oldest dating to 1798. The southern portion of the cemetery is much larger, and is laid out with narrow roadways, most of which were in place by 1878. The terrain of the southern section is similar to that of the northern, also featuring a hill and valley. The most prominent memorial is the Tinker Mausoleum (1926), located in the northern section. The oldest surviving cemetery in North Adams is the Old Congregational Burying Ground (1780). Hillside appears to have been established as a family cemetery of the locally prominent Knight family, who buried their daughter Olive in 1798. Members of the Knight family were among the first to introduce textile manufacturing into North Adams, its early source of growth and prosperity in the 19th century. The town of Adams (from which North Adams separated in 1878) purchased the southern tract in 1858. North Adams' second public cemetery, located in the southern part of the city, was opened in 1898. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Location

North Adams, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
42.70045, -73.12266

Categories

ARTARCHITECTURECOMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENTLANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURESOCIAL HISTORY
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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The Civil War
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The Soldiers
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Native Heritage
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Settlement
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The Community
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Questions about this property

When was Hillside Cemetery listed on the National Register?

Hillside Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 18, 2001.

What type of historic resource is Hillside Cemetery?

Hillside Cemetery is classified as a site in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Hillside Cemetery?

The period of significance for Hillside Cemetery is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1798.

Can I research the history near Hillside Cemetery?

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