Hillside Cemetery is a historic
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
on West Main Street (
Massachusetts Route 2
Route 2 is a major east–west state highway in Massachusetts. Along with Route 9 and U.S. Route 20 to the south, these highways are the main alternatives to the Massachusetts Turnpike/ I-90 toll highway. Route 2 runs the entire ...
) between Brown Street and Charles Street in
North Adams,
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. 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
Mount Greylock is a mountain located in the northwest corner of Massachusetts and is the highest point in the state. Its summit is in the western part of the town of Adams (near its border with Williamstown) in Berkshire County. Geologicall ...
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
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2001.
Notable burials
* Edwin Thayer Barlow, architect
See also
*
References
Notes
External links
*
*
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts, state=collapsed
Buildings and structures in North Adams, Massachusetts
Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Cemeteries in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Cemeteries established in the 1790s
1798 establishments in Massachusetts