National Register reference number.11000021- 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.
By order of the General Court, the first townmeeting was held August 28, 1727, at the house of Timothy Brigham, which stood where is now located the St. Mark's School-house. William Johnson was moderator. The first town-meeting, under warrant of selectmen, was held March, 1728 - James Newton, moderator ; Moses Newton, Scth Bellows, Doe Mathea, and Captain Ward were selectmen. The principal business of this meeting, besides the choice of officers, and of several town-meetings which followed, was to arrange for procuring a minister of "good conversation to preach God's word," and to devise ways and means to build a meeting-house. Money for both purposes was promptly raised. The first meetinghouse built was 50x40 feet, aud 20-foot posts ; £300, or $1,000, was appropriated for same. It was built in 1727-28. This house lasted seventy-nine years, at the end of which time it was sold for .$76.99, aud taken down. It was located a few feet south of the house now owned by the Pilgrim Evangelical Society, and on a portion of the land given by the inhabitants of Marlborough to the inhabitants of this section thereof, previous to the incorporation of Southborough(said land was given and set apart for the accommodation of meeting-house, burial-place and for a training-field forever). In 1806, December 17th, the second church edifice was dedicated ; it cost .$7,778.
The first minister settled by the town was Rev. Nathan Stone. He was ordained October 21, 1730, and continued their pastor until his death, May 31, 1781. June 1, 1791, Rev. Samuel Sumner was settled. He was dismissed, agreeably to his request, December, 1797. In 1799, October 9th, Rev. Jeroboam Parker, a native of Southborough, was ordained, and became their pastor. He was dismissed at his own request in 1832. The First Parish Society afterwards settled Rev. John D. Sweet, Rev. William Lord, Rev. Alden and Rev. Barnard. The salary first paid to Mr. Stone was £120 or $400, and thirty cords of good wood. In 1734 his salary w;us raised to X150 and thirty cords of good wood.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 89 fires within 5 miles of South Union School
between 2015 and 2020, burning about 46 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 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
37
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
24
Recreation and ceremony
14
Arson/incendiarism
4
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Smoking
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
Other causes
1
Natural
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 511 specimens
collected within 10 miles of South Union School between 1858 and 1975: 272 Animalia, 148 Plantae, 88 Fungi, 2 Protozoa, 1 Chromista.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. P. D. Piguet, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele 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 South Union School: 4 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Southborough, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2002 and 2009: 1 lightning, 1 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 across much of southern Worcester County. The worst flooding was experienced in Westborough and Worcester. The Westborough News reported it as the worst flooding Westborough has seen in years. The Westborough fire department took 57 calls due to either flooded basements or motorists stranded in flood waters. Flooding was especially bad in the streets behind Westborough High School, south of the Westborough Reservoir and around the Jackstraw Brook. In Worcester, numerous streets were flooded and washed out. Two people were rescued from flood waters in Southborough. In addition, a couple of propane tanks had to be secured at a house on Parkerville Road because they were floating in the waters. The Southborough Fire Department received 26 calls of basement flooding. Six inches of water inundated the Southborough Public Library's children's section, damaging books.
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.) 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.) Worcester County, Massachusetts County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) Architecture Education Social History Period of Significance 1911-1960 Significant Dates 1911-1912 (construction of South Union School) Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder (see continuation sheet) Cooper and Bailey Cooper, Frank Irving 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 11000021, 35 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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