HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
New Hampshire's oldest burial ground, established about 1682, resting place of Portsmouth's colonial families and a fixture of the city's ghost-tour route.
Mechanic Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The burial ground is a public city site, free to walk during daylight hours. Guided ghost and history tours that stop here are separately ticketed.
Access
Limited Access
Small fenced 17th-century burial ground on grass; uneven ground and old stones. Located on the south side of Mechanic Street opposite Prescott Park.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1682 · Oldest surviving burial ground in Portsmouth (earliest legible stone 1682) · Half-acre granted by Captain John Pickering II · Resting place of the Wentworth, Vaughan, Rogers, and Lear families · Notable early New England gravestone carving
Point of Graves sits on the south side of Mechanic Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, opposite Prescott Park and near the Peirce Island bridge. It is the oldest known surviving burial ground in the city and one of the oldest in the state. Captain John Pickering II donated a half-acre of land for the town's burials in the 17th century, and the earliest legible gravestone is dated 1682. Older burials almost certainly predate the surviving stones; tradition holds that Pickering continued to graze cattle on the ground after granting it, which helps explain the loss of the earliest markers.
About 125 gravestones remain. Among those interred are members of Portsmouth's prominent colonial families, including the Wentworths, the Vaughans, the Rogers, and the Lears. The burial ground is also valued for its stonework: markers here are attributed to early New England carvers, among them Boston cutters such as William Mumford and Nathaniel Emmes, making the site a small open-air record of 17th- and 18th-century funerary carving.
The City of Portsmouth maintains Point of Graves as a historic cemetery, and it appears on the city's historic-cemeteries roster. In 2017, Yankee Magazine named a Portsmouth cemetery tour that features the site among the best cemetery tours in New England, reflecting its standing as both a genealogical and an architectural landmark in the seacoast region.
Sources
As New Hampshire's oldest burial ground, Point of Graves has long anchored Portsmouth's ghost-tour route, and Wikipedia notes plainly that its putative hauntings are part of the site's tourist appeal. The accounts are the quiet kind common to old cemeteries rather than dramatic encounters.
Visitors and tour patrons most often describe three things: a particular tomb that seems to glow when photographed, a wave of sadness felt near the graves of two children, and the sense of being followed or watched while walking among the stones. Local storytelling sometimes attaches that last feeling to a woman remembered as Elizabeth Pierce, though this is folklore tied to a marker rather than a documented event.
The site's reputation owes as much to its age and setting as to any single story. A Portsmouth cemetery tour that stops here was recognized by Yankee Magazine in 2017, and guides lean on the burial ground's genuine 17th-century history when they tell its ghost lore. Because Point of Graves is an active historic cemetery, visitors are asked to keep to the paths, photograph respectfully, and avoid touching the fragile early stones.
Notable Entities
Walk the fenced 17th-century burial ground opposite Prescott Park, where stones dating to 1682 mark the graves of Portsmouth's early families. Interpretive context is available through the City of Portsmouth's historic cemeteries program.
Point of Graves is a regular stop on Portsmouth's evening ghost and history walking tours, which cover the burial ground's colonial history and its place in local lore. Tours are run by independent operators; check current schedules and book directly with the operator.
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This Portsmouth tour includes Point of Graves Burial Ground on its route.
Book this tourThis Portsmouth tour includes Point of Graves Burial Ground on its route.
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