A 'cursed brick' returns to Old North Church

A small package containing a brick arrived on the doorstep of Old North Church in March. There was no return address, but it was postmarked from San Jose, California.

Under the shipping label, in a small typed font, was a note: “My husband took this from the crypt. We have had a string of bad luck and we want to return the brick.”

After deliberation, the team at Old North Church put the brick on display for visitors of the crypt to view.

As visitors exited the crypt this week, they murmured questions of how and why the brick was removed, how and why it was returned.

“That’s so creepy,” one visitor said to another. “You didn’t touch it, did you?”

Visitors often ask for ghost stories, said Nikki Stewart, executive director of Old North Illuminated, the nonprofit that oversees the site. But the organization likes to remind people of the sacredness of space. The “Curséd Brick” will serve as a way to satisfy those fascinations while reinforcing the spirituality behind the crypt.

“The crypt is a sacred space, not a haunted house,” Stewart said. “The brick is lighthearted. It’s what you make of it.”

The crypt at Old North Church opened in 1732 as a consecrated space for Anglicans to be buried in largely Puritan Boston. Boston’s oldest standing church, Old North continued crypt burials for over a century, with the latest coffin plate dated 1872 — 22 years after Boston barred indoor burials in 1850. Over 1,100 people are buried there, including historical figures like British Major John Pitcairn, who died in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and Captain Samuel Nicholson, the first commander of the USS Constitution.

In 2023, the crypt underwent restoration, and many bricks were replaced, Stewart said. It is likely that a visitor took a brick that was lying around, an act that did not cause damage, she said.

Melissa Macon of Austin, Texas, was visiting Old North Church this week with her husband, Ryan, when she saw the brick.

“I was wondering where it came from,” she said, “but then I looked up and saw some debris just sitting there.”

Lisa Griffin, from Atlanta, Georgia, said the story of the brick brought a smile to her face.

“Why did he take the brick? And what was the bad luck?” Griffin said. Her son, Zach, said he is “not the biggest believer in curses” but that the brick was still fun to view.

Pamela Bennett, the retail buyer for Old North Illuminated, found the package and recalled being confused by it.

“I could see a lot of dust from the brick… All I thought was, ‘What the heck?’” Bennett said. She said she wondered why someone would take something from the crypt, but that years ago she was also the one to receive a package containing a returned headstone meant for Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, just up the road from Old North Church.

The brick is incorporated into the After-Hours Crypt Tours, which began Sept. 18 and run through Nov. 1, and it will be on public display for those with tickets to view the crypt during operating hours.

Though the brick’s story is engaging, Stewart said the focus of the crypt remains on highlighting the space’s spirituality.

A church sexton is still responsible for upkeep of the tombs in the crypt and the niches in the columbarium, which is separated by a door from the crypt visiting space.

“There is still someone doing that historic job,” Stewart said. “It looks a little different, but it still very much happens.”

But the active columbarium — where urns containing cremains are stored — just next to the historic crypt site suggests that today’s burial sentiments are not as far from those of the past.

“We almost always care what happens to our loved ones,” said Stewart, heading out of the columbarium. “It might seem frivolous as a historic site, but it actually connects you with humanity.”

This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.