In the earliest years of St. Paul’s the building included tombs and sales commenced in 1822-23. Internal tombs were a common feature in this period; Christ Church (Old North) in Boston’s North End has approximately 1,100 burials sealed in its crypt with active burials between 1732 and 1860. In 1853 city health officials deemed internal burials to pose a health risk. Tombs were ordered sealed although Old North continued the practice for a few more years. The date of the last internal burial at St. Paul’s requires more research. An article regarding St. Paul’s from The Church Militant (October, 1904) described the then occupied tombs:
“Under the church are to be found numerous tombs which under the early stress of debt it was decided to build. Burial rights were sold for $300 each and were often purchased by people who were in no way connected with the parish. These tombs today have inscribed over their doors the names of some of Boston's best-known families. General Joseph Warren remains rested for 30 years in one of these tombs. In another tomb W H Prescott the historian was buried.”
Over time other occupants would include members of well-known Boston families such as; David Sears, Thomas Wigglesworth, Daniel Parker, Daniel Webster, and Samuel Appleton.
A decade after that article was written the use of the crypt space changed as the need for more space for the living took precedence over the deceased. By 1914 plans were in the works to convert the crypt level of St Paul’s to a parish hall and possibly office space. The Cathedral Chapter purchased a lot at Mount Hope Cemetery in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. Of the original 400 buried at St. Paul’s, about 175 were still there at the time of the purchases of the Mount Hope lot – many of the deceased having already been moved by their families in previous years.
We do not know the exact reason for why so many of these burials were moved beforehand. Once could guess it was so that families could have greater control of the remains. Garden cemeteries such as the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass, created in 1831, became all the rage. St Paul families started buying plots at this oasis outside of the city. It would seem a better choice than to have the bones of a family member moved into common grave such as a charnel vault or ossuary, a common practice at the time, in order to make room for new burials.
Those bodies that remained in the tomb at St. Paul’s, roughly 100, were reinterred at Mount Hope Cemetery in a ceremony on May 1, 1914, presided over by Dean Rousimaniere. The plot is marked with only a single large cross to designate the location. There are no individual monuments on the graves.
The lower level of the Cathedral today is now Sproat Hall and there are no longer any burials in (or remaining tombs!) at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
Photos saved on Flickr.com.
