Home

10%

Old Burying Point Cemetery

Burying Point is the 2nd oldest cemetery in the U.S. and is home to a memorial for the 19 victims of the Salem Witch Trials.

By The Taphotourist

We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream; it may be so the moment after death. ― Nathaniel Hawthorne

The victims of the Salem Witch Trials were not granted graves and now, instead, have a memorial near the cemetery on Charter Street. Witch Trial judges, however, are buried here.

What are these photos about?

The Old Burying Point is Salem's first cemetery. It was created in 1637, just 55 years before the Witch Trials.

There are a little over 300 individuals buried in Old Burying Point (though some sources claim as many as over 500), including an original Mayflower passenger.

What are these photos about?

Winged "death heads", representing ascension into heaven or the flight of the soul, decorate the graves along with urns, hour glasses, and reapers - a Puritan response to the extravagant graves in England. These were popular motifs of the 17th century. By the 18th century, happier motifs involving cherubs and angels developed.

300 years after the Trials, a ceremony was held here for the victims which included speeches from Arthur Miller and Elie Wiesel.

Effort is made to repair broken headstones and rubbings are prohibited.

The Grimshawe House was built around 1680 and was the home of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's future wife when he was courting her.

Footnotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world

Button Label

FootNotes

I have a great love for cemeteries and the various kinds of graves around the world

Bonaventure Cemetery

Built on Donation Land Claim land just before the wagons started rolling, McHargue is home to some of Oregon's earliest trail settlers.

Read

Spirit Houses of Phang Nga

Locked cemeteries led me instead to explore the meaning behind the shrines that dot Thailand's roadsides. Here, a sampling from a local province.

Read

Forest Hills Cemetery

Nestled at the foot of a mountain, Forest Hill is a tranquil resting place a world apart bustling Chattanooga.

Read

Old Burying Point Cemetery

Burying Point is the 2nd oldest cemetery in the U.S. and is home to a memorial for the 19 victims of the Salem Witch Trials.

FootNotes

The haunting statues and Spanish moss-laden live oaks make this cemetery among the most somberly romantic in the world.

Eight acres of forested space provides respite from Iceland’s tundra in the heart of Reykjavík.

The burial place of the last shogun still maintains a Shitamachi atomosphere in bustling Tokyo.

Built on Donation Land Claim land just before the wagons started rolling, McHargue is home to some of Oregon's earliest trail settlers.

Locked cemeteries led me instead to explore the meaning behind the shrines that dot Thailand's roadsides. Here, a sampling from a local province.

Nestled at the foot of a mountain, Forest Hill is a tranquil resting place a world apart bustling Chattanooga.