Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Center School
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2006. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“When the turnpike w:is opened this town was obliged to build two short lines of public road for the accommodation of families located near it. One of aeventy-five rods, in the east part of the town, made a new opening to Burlington, and one in the vicinity of Abner Wheeler's (Ernstein's).”
History of the Town of Bedford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Year of Our Lord 1891 ... with a Genealogical Register of Old Families (1891). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 2006 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.06000523- 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.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Bedford town, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
The subject of this sketch was born in Salem, Mass., May 7, 1820, in a house on the opposite corner to the one in which White was murdered by the Kuappa and Crowninshield. In 1821 his parents removed to Moultonborough, N. H., where they lived a few years, and William was sent to the village school for a brief term.
When the turnpike w:is opened this town was obliged to build two short lines of public road for the accommodation of families located near it. One of aeventy-five rods, in the east part of the town, made a new opening to Burlington, and one in the vicinity of Abner Wheeler's (Ernstein's). May, 1822, the road from John Merriam's to Lexington, two rods wide, was made a town-way. But few additions were made to the highways after the opening of the Chelmsford road until the coming of the railroad.
Lodge of K. of P. in 1880, and of Rising Sun Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in 1882. He was a charter member of Bedford Comniandery, U.O.G.C. in 1889. He united with the Baptist Church of Burlington, Vt., in June, 1884, and by letter with the Bedford Trinitarian Church in 1885. Stephen A. Wood married, July 3, 1872, Adrianna, daughter of Charles G. and Hannah P. Fletcher, of Groton. Child : Fannie A. L., born May 21, 1874, at Nashua, N.H.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Center School between
1992 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was 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
21
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
13
Recreation and ceremony
2
Natural
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
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 1,293 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Center School between 1898 and
1975: 586 Animalia, 431 Plantae, 248 Fungi, 10 Bacteria, 7 Unrecorded, 6 Chromista, 5 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley 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
8 workings within 5 miles of Center School: 5 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Titanium. 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
Burlington, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 lightning, 2 hail, 1 flash 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.
Numerous roads were flooded and subsequently closed as anywhere from two to four inches of rain fell across Middlesex County. The most affected areas include Framingham and Marlborough. In Framingham, roads were closed due to mudslides as well as flooding, including Routes 126 and 9. Walking trails at Garden in the Woods were also washed out. In Marlborough, basements were flooded and a portion of the driveway at the New Hope Community Church was washed out.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
7,589 words on record
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.) x A 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. -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.) _Middlesex, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) Architecture Community Planning and Development Education Period of Significance 1855-1956 Significant Dates 1855 construction 1897 end of use as school Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) Cultural Affiliation Architect/Builder David Clark 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 06000523, 38 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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