Charter Street Cemetery

Established before 1637, Charter Street Cemetery is the oldest European burial ground in Salem and among the oldest in the country, though Indigenous burial sites that pre-date colonization are found in Salem. The cemetery’s historical significance was recognized in 1975 when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Salem’s Charter Street Historic District.

The first recorded reference to the Old Burying Point (as Charter Street Cemetery was often known) was in 1637, when town records show a local man named John Horne was given permission to erect a windmill in the ‘burial place.’ The next record appears in 1639, pertaining to the same windmill, and the same burial place, as the town-

“ordered yt John Horne shall desist from his inclosure in ye bury all place: and yt ye town shall pay for a quarter of an acre when he hath bought ye same. except the Towne when they shall haue changed the buryall place shall alow him a portion of the same.”

Charter Street Cemetery is currently open seven days a week from 12:00PM till 4:00PM, with last admission to the cemetery being 3:45PM.