Couch Cemetery

Couch Cemetery is on Union Street in Marshfield. It is owned by the Town and run by the Department of Public Works through its Cemeteries, Trees & Greens division. The Town lists it as established in 1983, which makes it the youngest of Marshfield's town cemeteries — and it is the only one still selling lots, which the Town does on an as-needed basis.

Because it is a working cemetery with new burials every year, the questions families bring us here are mostly practical: what the Town allows, how to keep a newer stone looking the way it did on the day it was set, and how to have a grave decorated for a holiday when you can't be there.

Who to contact

The Cemeteries, Trees & Greens office is at 965 Plain Street, Marshfield, and can be reached at (781) 834-5575, extension 1. The Town's website lists office hours in two places that don't agree with each other, so call before you visit in person. Lot sales, burials, and questions about what you can place on a grave all go through this office.

If you are ordering a monument, the Town publishes a separate monument sizing document for Section 4 at Couch Cemetery, alongside its current cemetery rates. Ask your monument company to check it before the stone is cut.

Seasonal rules worth knowing

The Town puts responsibility for holiday decorations on lot owners: you place them, and you remove them. Fall cleanup includes leaf blowing, and the Town warns that this can disturb decorations and that it is not responsible for damage — so anything left out in autumn should be secured.

The cemetery water is shut off for the winter and turned back on in April or May, depending on the weather. If you water plantings yourself, plan around that.

We have not found published rules on what plantings or decorations are allowed at Couch Cemetery beyond these, so ask the office before planting anything permanent. If you'd like a Christmas wreath placed and then taken away at the end of the season, that is a service we offer — choose "Christmas Wreath / Décor" on the request form.

Finding a burial here

The Town uses Cemetery Find (cemeteryfind.com) for its burial search. Volunteer transcriptions also list this ground as "Couch Memorial Cemetery," and one online index covers about 1,961 records with dates of death going back to 1801. That is well before the Town's 1983 founding date, and the Town separately lists the Two Mile Burial Ground, also on Union Street, established in 1801. If a record looks older than the cemetery, check with the office which ground the grave is actually in before you drive out.

If you can't get to Marshfield, we can find the stone and photograph it for a one-time fee of $15–$25. How to find an ancestor's grave on the South Shore covers the wider search.

Stone care here

A cemetery this young is mostly granite, much of it polished. Polished granite is durable, but it shows everything: a grey film from pollen and road dust, hard-water spots from sprinklers, and lichen starting at the base where moisture sits. The mistake we see most often on newer stones is an abrasive pad or a household cleaner, which leaves a permanent haze on the polish. Granite, marble, and slate covers what each material can safely take.

We clean with D/2 Biological Solution over a minimum of three visits, with no pressure washing and nothing abrasive. For a newer stone, regular light cleaning keeps it from ever needing more. The three-visit process explains what happens on site, and our care plans cover scheduled visits through the year.