Built in 1905 (Colonial Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1888.
From the record
“Georgetown Central School, or Memorial Town Hall, is a historic school building at 1 Library Street in Georgetown, Massachusetts. The building currently serves as Georgetown's Town Hall.”
Wikipedia article Georgetown Central School, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 480 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 2001 · category: Building · built in 1905, Colonial Revival architecture, by Cooper & Bailey.
National Register reference number.01000915- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Then and now
1888 to 1997
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
The town of Georgetown, the twenty-seventh in the sisterhood of Essex County, and numbering three hundred and three in the line of date of incorpora tion of the towns then existing within the limits of the State, has for its natal day April 21, 1838. Two municipalities besides Georgetown were at that session of the General Court granted permission "to be." One, a poor, feeble child of the commonwealth, on the extreme western border, was, just a week before, in exquisite raillery it would seem, ushered into the family as Boston Corner, and then, after a few brief years, with its square mile of territory and seventythree inhabitants, was quietly or otherwise disposed of to our New York neighbors. The other, known originally as " Erving's Grant," became the town of Erving, in Franklin County. That town has had a moderate growth in a fairly, fertile agricultural district, and to-day continues with but slight increase from one census point to another. Georgetown is located about six miles northerly of the geographical centre of the county, and on the southern border of the Merrimac towns. It has an outline of five sides known as quinquangular, having that number of rather unequal sides, but bounded, however, by four towns only, viz : Boxford, extending along the west and south; Rowley on the southeast; Newbury on the east; Groveland along the entire north; and without any marked change of boundary line, exists to-day as when set off from Rowley, the mother-territory, nearly a half-century ago. Its greatest length is from west-northwest to east-southeast, nearly five and three-fourths miles. This is from the angle north of the house of Mrs. Edward Poor, on West Street, to a point about one-half mile southeast of the new cemetery in Byfield, and its extreme width, three and one-half miles, is from just north of the Thurlow estate, on Thurlow Street, to the noted boundary-mark where Rowley, Boxford and Georgetown lines diverge a large red oak tree of which the charred stump now remains, known from early times as the " Three Sisters." A Sunday raccoon hunt by some of our local sportsmen is understood to tell the story of its destruction, a score or more of years ago.
The seventy-first deg'ree west, Greenwich, at the Boxford boundary is just west of the B. & M. R. R., across which the railroad diverges to the west of the line near the residence of H. P. Chaplin, Esq., crossing Georgetown village very nearly where the First Congregational Church stands and Main Street a few rods northwest of the centre, having the eastern corner of Groveland and the villages of West Newbury and Merrimac on the same line at the north. Directly south is the most westerly section of Lynn, East Saugus, West Peabody, Middleton and Boxford village. Located within the latitude of 42° 42' to 45', this town has exactly on the western line the city of Lawrence, the denser part of Methuen, the river side of North Andover, West Boxford, and eastwardly the entire town of Rowley, the Great Neck district of Ipswich, and along the ocean all that part of Plum Island within Rowley and Ipswich. The nearest point to the open Atlantic, from the village centre on the air line, is across Hog Isl'and and just south of the division on Plum Island between Rowley and Ipswich, about ten and one-half miles. The entrance to Ipswich River, the same distance. In favoring conditions of wind and atmosphere, the beating of the surf on Plum Island, after or during a gale, and Ipswich beach before the storm is upon us, is distinctly heard in this town. The nearest point to Merrimac river, is at the boundary between Bradford and Groveland, distance three and one-fifth miles. Direct line to Haverhill bridge railroad station five and one-half miles. Nearest point to State line, a point about midway of Plaistow, N. H., just north of Kenoza Lake, six and three-fourths miles. City of Lawrence eight and one-half miles ; and the factory bells are heard frequently and very clearly. The tide-water at Byfield not quite four miles distant.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 72 fires within 5 miles of Georgetown Central School
between 2015 and 2020, burning about 33 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
24
Equipment and vehicle use
12
Recreation and ceremony
9
Arson/incendiarism
9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
6
Smoking
5
Power generation/transmission/distribution
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 3,021 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Georgetown Central School between 1800 and 1975: 1,464 Plantae, 920 Animalia, 577 Fungi, 34 Chromista, 14 Protozoa, 10 Unrecorded, 2 Bacteria.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Brown, A. A. Eaton, A. A. Eaton; R. G. Leavitt and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
10 workings within 5 miles of Georgetown Central School: 7 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sulfur, Lead. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Georgetown, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1998 and 2021: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Microburst occurred in Georgetown at approximately 7:10 pm EDT in Georgetown. Numerous trees and wires were downed. Winds estimated near 80 mph just southeast of the Crane Pond Wildlife Management Area.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) XA Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. - B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. X C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. - D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: -A owned by religious institution or used for religious purposes. _ B removed from its original location. _ C a birthplace or grave. _ D a cemetery. - E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. _ F a commemorative property. ESSEX COUNTY, MASS. County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) EDUCATION ARCHITECTURE Period of Significance 1905- 1951 Significant Dates 1905 Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder COOPER AND BAILEY - G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years.
Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) SEE ATTACHED CONTINUATION SHEET #8 2.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 01000915, 27 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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