Eliot Burying Ground

The Eliot Burying Ground has stood at the crossroads of Roxbury's history for nearly four centuries. From early Puritan settlers and Indigenous history to Roxbury's role in the American Revolution—when the burying ground became part of a military redoubt during the Siege of Boston—this walking tour explores the people and events that shaped one of Boston's oldest neighborhoods. Alongside well-known figures such as John Eliot, you'll encounter many others whose names are less familiar today, but whose lives reveal the growth, challenges, and changing character of early Roxbury.

Explore extraordinary gravestones, tombs, and funerary art that reflect changing ideas about death, memory, religion, and social status across three centuries. The burying ground offers a remarkable outdoor gallery of early New England gravestone art. Along the way, learn about the realities of everyday life in colonial Massachusetts, including disease, childhood mortality, religious conflict, and the ways race, gender, and social status shaped people's opportunities and experiences.

You'll also discover how Roxbury continues to evolve through thoughtful preservation, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, and new development projects that are helping shape the neighborhood's future while remaining connected to its past.

This tour is offered in collaboration with the City of Boston's Historic Burying Grounds Initiative.