Old Hill Burying Ground was first graveyard in Concord, Mass., established after the town formed in 1635.

The earliest existing gravestone here belongs to Joseph Merriam, who died April 20, 1677. Nearly 500 graves are at Old Hill Burying Ground, which is literally in the back yards of houses that border it.

The carved sign behind Snickers reads: “On this Hill the Settlers of Concord built their Meeting House near which they were buried On the southern slope of the ridge were their Dwellings during the first winter Below it they laid out their first Road and on the summit stood the Liberty Pole of the Revolution.”

 Major John Buttrick, who famously ordered colonial militia at North Bridge to fire upon British soldiers on April 19, 1775, is buried here, as is his son and forty other veterans of the American Revolutionary War.

The graveyard, located on a hill overlooking town center, also hosts grave of John Jack, the first former enslaved person to purchase land in Concord.