Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
West Brick School
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2011. 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
“(Provide at least one paragraph for each area of significance.) Oakham and Its Early Schools Although the West Brick School is Oakham's oldest surviving school, it was certainly not its first. The land that was incorporated as the town of Oakham in the late 18th century was originally part of the approximately 150-square-mile Naquag Purchase, acquired from native Americans in 1686.”
Narrative Statement of Significance, National Register nomination for West Brick School. Machine-read text.
one of 500 National Register listings in Worcester County · listed in 2011 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Worcester County.
National Register reference number.11000070- 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
49 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 49 fires within 5 miles of West Brick School between
2015 and 2018, burning about 50 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
29
Recreation and ceremony
9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
7
Arson/incendiarism
2
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Smoking
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 657 specimens
collected within 10 miles of West Brick School between 1839 and
1974: 323 Animalia, 235 Plantae, 97 Fungi, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A.B. Seymour, A.E. Daugherty and L. Babbitt 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
6 workings within 5 miles of West Brick School: 5 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Oakham, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail.
The reports record 4 injuries. 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.
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
14,988 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.) A 00 roperty is associated with events that nave nade a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. 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.
(Expires 5/31/2012) Worcester, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions.) ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION Period of Significance Ca. 1827-1960 dates as school & vacation home Significant Dates ca.1827 - school built 1920 - school ceases operation 1936 - building begins use as vacation home Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above.) Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: A Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes 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 old or achieving significance within the past 50 years.
Cultural Affiliation Architect/Builder unknown 7 NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) Period of Significance (justification) For nearly 100 years, the West Brick School (officially known as the West School) was the place where the children of Oakham families, living on the farms that occupied the northwest corner of Oakham, were educated. Built around 1827, the building served as a school until 1920.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 11000070, 55 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
4 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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