Chelsea Square Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

One of 345 National Register listings published here for Suffolk County · listed in 1982 · category: District.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Roughly area around Broadway, Medford. Tremont, Park, Cross and Winnisimmet Sts., Chelsea
When was it listed? April 1982
Category. district
National Register reference number. 09000144 - 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.

Fires near this property

43 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 43 fires within 5 miles of Chelsea Square Historic District between 2015 and 2020, burning about 20 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	16
Debris and open burning	12
Arson/incendiarism	5
Smoking	5
Recreation and ceremony	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
2 September 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	QUINCY

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Chelsea Square Historic District: 9 plants, 3 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
(Facility) Vulcan Smelter--Chelsea, Ma.	Copper, Lead	Plant
C. J. Mabardy	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma.	Silica	Plant
Us Gypsum Co--Boston	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer
Whittemore Prdts Inc--Boston	Perlite	Plant
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter Co	Lead	Plant
General Metals & Smelting--Boston	Lead	Plant
Industrial Serv. Centers--Cambridge	Iron	Plant
Somerville Smelting Co.	Lead	Plant
Us Steel Supply Div--Boston	Iron	Plant

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
1943 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000
1946 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:31680 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:31680
1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1956 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1971 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000
1971 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000
1977 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000
1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
1985 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000 - 3 printings
1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
LUNA (tugboat)	0.2 miles	1983
Downtown Chelsea Residential Historic District	0.2 miles	1988
Congregation Agudath Shalom	0.3 miles	1993
Naval Hospital Boston Historic District	0.4 miles	1973
Bellingham Square Historic District	0.4 miles	1985
Chelsea Garden Cemetery	0.4 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09000144 in Record Group 79.
Suffolk County	All 345 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

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.
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.