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Photograph of Charles R. Wilber School
Photograph by User:Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wilber, Charles R., School

Built in 1922. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. 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

“Wilber School is a historic school building at 75-85 South Main Street in Sharon, Massachusetts. Located on a block facing Sharon Town Hall, the large two story brick Colonial and Classical Revival building was built in 1921-22 and enlarged in 1928-29.”

Wikipedia article Charles R. Wilber School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 249 National Register listings in Norfolk County · listed in 2010 · category: Building · built in 1922 · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Norfolk County.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 75-85 S Main St, Sharon, 02067
  • When was it listed? 2010-05-10
  • Category. building
  • Township. Sharon town
  • When was it built? 1922
  • National Register reference number. 10000244 - 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.

The ground it stands on

42,688 words

The chapter on Sharon Town in The Best Town to Live In: Sharon, Massachusetts, published 1889 names Sharon. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Sharon is seventeen miles from Boston and twenty-five from Providence, on the Providence Division of the Old Colony Railroad. There are eleven trains from Boston each week day, including a theatre train, and two trains out on Sunday. Time of trains from Boston, thirty to forty minutes. This road is one of the oldest, best equipped and most carefully managed roads in the country. It crosses no drawbridge, the trains are almost invariably on time and have plenty of cars, so each passenger can have a seat. It is double tracked with steel rails it? entire length.

Passage source: The Best Town to Live In: Sharon, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Its Boston station on Columbus Avenue and Park Square is convenient and comfortable, and architecturally, the most beautiful in the United States. It is said by those who have travelled extensively, to be unequalled in the world, when convenience, comfort, looks and surroundings are taken into account. Single fares from Boston to Sharon, forty cents ; five tickets, one dollar and seventy-five cents, or thirty-five cents each. Season tickets for three months, twentythree dollars, or about fourteen cents a trip. Single fare from Sharon to Providence, sixty cents. One thousand-mile tickets, good on any portion of the Old Colony sj'-stem, 820.00. Passengers from New York can reach Sharon by the all rail Shore line, or bv the Providence

Passage source: The Best Town to Live In: Sharon, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Sharon Town - 42,688 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

160 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 160 fires within 5 miles of Wilber, Charles R., School between 2015 and 2020, burning about 49 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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
Recreation and ceremony62
Smoking43
Missing data/not specified/undetermined39
Debris and open burning9
Equipment and vehicle use2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Natural1
Arson/incendiarism1
Other causes1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSTOUGHTON
5 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSHARON
5 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSHARON
26 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSHARON
25 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSTOUGHTON
23 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSHARON
20 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSHARON

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 4,955 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 4,955 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wilber, Charles R., School between 1846 and 1975: 2,031 Plantae, 1,408 Fungi, 1,338 Animalia, 132 Protozoa, 22 Chromista, 19 Unrecorded, 5 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A W Cheever, A. A. Eaton 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.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Clethra alnifolia L.Clethra alnifolia L.1900J. G. Hall
Specimen of Hieracium venosum L.Hieracium venosum L.1900E. F. WilliamsBlue Hills Reservation
Specimen of Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Galium verum, not of this specimenGalium verum L.1846Kupell
A photograph of the species Carex bullata, not of this specimenCarex bullata Schkuhr1853Collector unknownHoughtons Pond.
A photograph of the species Carex albicans, not of this specimenCarex albicans Willd. ex Spreng.1854W. BoottWest Quincy: Blue Hills Reservation, River Road
A photograph of the species Chamberlainia salebrosa, not of this specimenChamberlainia salebrosa (Hoffm. ex F.Weber & D.Mohr) H.Rob.1857T. P. JamesRandolph
A photograph of the species Carex swanii, not of this specimenCarex swanii (Fernald) Mack.1870Joseph BlakeSharon
A photograph of the species Chamaecyparis thyoides, not of this specimenChamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.1870Joseph BlakeSharon
Chantransia hermannii (Roth) Desvaux1870F. W. Dewart
A photograph of the species Trichophorum planifolium, not of this specimenTrichophorum planifolium (Spreng.) Palla1870Joseph BlakeSharon
A photograph of the species Carex panicea, not of this specimenCarex panicea L.1871not recorded

All 4,955 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Wilber, Charles R., School: 7 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Walpole QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Iron Mountain MineIronPast Producer
Thorn Mountain ProspectIronOccurrence
A A Will Materials CordSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Dedham Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Dedham Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Farnham PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Robbins PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sansone BrothersSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Stoughton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms near this property

12 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sharon, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 2002 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 4 lightning, 2 flood, 1 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2004LightningSharon$25,000no account filed
June 2016LightningSharon$10,000A house on Wadsworth Way was struck by lightning. This resulted in electrical and structural damage.
July 2013LightningSharon$5,000Lightning struck a house on Tracey Lane, igniting a fire.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindSharon$5,000Trees, large branches, and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2008LightningSharon$5,000The Quincy Patriot Ledger reported that lightning hit a shed in Sharon starting a fire that spread to an adjacent house. No one was injured.
February 2016Thunderstorm WindSharon$2,000A large branch and wires in Sharon were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindSharon$2,000no account filed
July 2025Flash FloodSharon-In Sharon, significant street flooding was reported on Canton St, Norwood St, Hampton Rd by Oak Hill Dr, and on Dean St at the railroad bridge. A car was stuck in flooding on Commercial St.
September 2022FloodSharon-In Sharon, low lying portions of Beach St were flooded near Sharon High School. Relayed by amateur radio.
August 2015FloodSharon-A portion of Billings Street was flooded.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindSharon-Large tree blocking road.
August 2006HailSharon-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Norfolk County

Map coverage status

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

8,905 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

(Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) _NORFOLK, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) LARCHITECTURE EDUCATION SOCIAL HISTORY Period of Significance 1922-1959 Significant Dates 1922 - construction and opening 1929 - conversion to high school Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) _N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder Monks & Johnson, Ralph Harrington Doane Edward S. Holland 9.

The whole case file for this property - 8,905 words, 42 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 10000244, 42 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Sharon Historic District0.1 miles1975
Stoneholm1.0 miles1980
Cobb's Tavern1.9 miles1974
House at 155 Reservoir2.4 miles1985
Canton Viaduct2.7 miles1984
Walpole Town Hall4.0 miles1981

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 10000244 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Norfolk CountyAll 249 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.
  • 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.