Chris Helms
The memorial to Capt. John Baker, who died in 1781, at Walter Street Burial Ground in the Arnold Arboretum.
In honor of Memorial Day, the graves of a historic burial ground at the Arnold Arboretum have been adorned with U.S. flags. The Walter Street Burying Ground may not be well known, even to frequent visitors of the park.
A church once stood atop Peters Hill, according to a brief history on the city's Web site. It had a cemetery behind it for early settlers.
The soldiers were originally buried at what was then the Loring House after a smallpox breakout. Today it's known as the Loring-Greenough House, right across from the Monument. Their remains were disinterred and moved in the 1850s, according to a Walter Marx story in the Jamaica Plain Citizen.
If you'd like to visit the burial ground, it's just below Peters Hill toward Walter Street. Here's a map.