FORM E - BURIAL GROUND Assessor's number USGS Quad /\rea(s) Form Number

Massachusetts Historical Commission 26-8 I I Marlborough I [AM 1__ 80_3 _

80 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116

Town Marlborough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Address I ynch Boulevard (North Robjn

Hill Road)
Name Robin HiJ1 Cemetery

Ownership: [] private [X] public

Approximate number of stones __ 1_8 _

Earliest death date 1817

Latest death date 1955

Landscape Architect none

Sketch Map Condition fair to good- gronnds

)raw or duplicate a map showing the property's lo-
cation in relation to geographic features and nearby maintained, but several markers leaning or
streets. Indicate all buildings or features within and
surrounding the inventoried property. Indicate the o1lt of posit jon ; some broken Marbles nnns-
nearest intersection (s). Indicate north.
lIa]]y weIJ-preselVed, with little effacement

Acreage one acre

Setting On east side of the new I ¥Deb BOII-

levard in developing commercial/office area

New concrete sports center opposite. Ceme-
I / tel)' overlooks intersection of 1-495 and 1-290
I V ./ to east.

~ / Recorded by Anne Forbes

I

H Organization for Marlborough Hist Comm

Date 5/12/95

<: 'assachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manonl instructiions M completing this [orm.
BURIAL GROUND

VISUAL/DESIGN ASSESSMENT [X] see continuation sheet

Describe landscape features, gravestone materials, designs, motifs, and symbols that are either
common or unusual. Note any known carvers.

Located in what was for centuries a remote rural section of Marlborough, the little hill-top Robin
Hill Cemetery is the community's second smallest burial ground. Today, though it still overlooks the
Assabet River to the northwest, and considerable open country, the interstate highways Routes 495
and 290 pass it closely to the east and south, and an industrial park is under development along the
new Lynch Boulevard to the west.

The cemetery is laid out in a rectangle, extending back from the road. Its borders are lined with
stone walls, those along the north and west edges functioning as retaining walls for the summit of /
Robin Hill, which fills the west end of the cemetery. Two gateways are located in the west front
wall, one near each end. Both are marked with granite gateposts which retain the iron pintels for
gates that are no longer in existence. A dressed-granite-block tomb occupies the center of the front
retaining wall. It has a vertical-board wooden door on large iron hinges, and bears a modem sign
saying "Robin Hill Cemetery." (Cont.)

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [X] see continuation sheet (

Explain religious affiliations, major period of use, and evaluate historical association of this burial ground
with the community.

In addition to the seven cemeteries in the center of the city, Marlborough has three small historic
neighborhood/family burial grounds located in the outlying farming districts--the Robin Hill, Wilson,
and Weeks Cemeteries. The Wilson (or "Farms") Cemetery dates to the late eighteenth century; the
other two were laid out in the early part of the nineteenth century, both probably in about 1817.
(See Forms 802 and 804). Although it is slightly larger than the Weeks Cemetery, Robin Hill has
the smallest number of markers of any of Marlborough's burial grounds, with only about 18 stones.
It is very likely that there are actually more graves here, however, either unmarked, or having lost
their markers. Most of the deaths recorded here date to the third quarter of the nineteenth century.

Like the Weeks and Wilson, the Robin Hill Cemetery speaks eloquently of life in an outlying section
of Marlborough in the nineteenth century, where all the householders were farmers, and poverty and
the hard rural life were the norm. Like the houses their owners lived in, the stones here are simple
and unadorned. The few family names indicate both the continuing farm ownership over
generations, and the tendency to intermarry with one's nearby neighbors. Among them are the many
Brighams, Cookes, Howes, Duntons, Feltons, Rices, and Woods of the Robin Hill district. (Cont.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [ ] see continuation sheet

Bigelow, Ella. Historical Reminiscences of Marlborough, Mass. 1910.
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Marlborough. 1862.
Maps and Atlases: 1856, 1875, 1889.
"Cemetery Records for the Weeks, Wilson, and Robin Hill Cemeteries". Marlborough Historical
Society, 1971-72.

[ X] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Robin Hill Cemetery

Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form No.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 AM 803
VISUAL/DESIGN ASSESSMENT, cant.
There are only a few gravestones on the hilltop, including two small twentieth-century granite slabs,
but tall pines and a few oaks and maples in this section provide the only landscape elements within
the cemetery. Most of the extant markers are located in the long, flat, eastern section. One curious
feature here is the clear outline of about twenty-four 12 x 12-£00t square burial plots that can be
easily seen in the contours of the earth of the eastern end, even though less than fifteen actual
gravestones are visible there.

Of those stones, only one, the 1844 marker for three-year-old Amory Holman, is made of slate, and
has an urn-and-willow design. The rest are marble, and are in surprisingly good condition for their
material. In keeping with their dates, most from the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and
the rural nature of the neighborhood, nearly all these are simple vertical rectangles, with either flat
or slightly arched tops. Some graves are also marked with small footstones. The most unusual
marker here is a tiny marble obelisk, to Theodore Wood, the two-year-old son of Robert and Susan
Wood, who died in 1850.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.

The markers reveal the frequency of childhood deaths. The earliest one, for instance, is a double
stone for the two sons of Levi and Lucinda Rice, who died at the ages of four and six on the same
day in December of 1817. Other Robin Hill residents lived exceedingly long lives. The Cooke
family plot, for instance, includes the graves of the district's oldest resident, Ananias Cooke, who
died in 1852 at the age of 91, and his wife, Sarah, who died at 89 in 1847. The most unusual
notation tells us that Lucinda Holman, wife of J.D. Bliss, who died at age 29 in 1867, was a
"clairvoyant physician".
 _INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
.•
Marlborough Robin Hill Cemetery

Massachusetts Historical Commission

80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form No.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 AM 803