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Photograph of Jedediah Foster Homesite
Photograph by Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Jedediah Foster Homesite

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. 21 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1887.

From the record

One of 686 National Register listings published here for Worcester County · listed in 2013 · category: Site.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 objectss, 2 sitess as contributing to the listing.
  • Listed as. Foster, Jedediah, Homesite - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. Foster Hill Rd., West Brookfield, 01585
  • When was it listed? 2013-08-27
  • Category. site
  • Town. West Brookfield town
  • National Register reference number. 13000623 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

35 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Jedediah Foster Homesite between 2015 and 2020, burning about 18 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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 burning10
Recreation and ceremony10
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Smoking3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Arson/incendiarism3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
24 June 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 June 2020Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 May 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 May 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 May 2015Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 368 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 368 specimens collected within 10 miles of Jedediah Foster Homesite between 1857 and 1975: 192 Plantae, 88 Animalia, 86 Fungi, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. Lavallee, A. P. Chute 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 Carex tenera var. teneraCarex tenera var. tenera1899R. M. Harper
A photograph of the species Krigia virginica, not of this specimenKrigia virginica (L.) Willd.1857not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex cephalophora, not of this specimenCarex cephalophora Muhl. ex Willd.1858J. Blake
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1858J. BlakeWare
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1858A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Celastrus scandens, not of this specimenCelastrus scandens L.1858s.coll.
A photograph of the species Ranunculus flabellaris, not of this specimenRanunculus flabellaris Raf.1858A. P. Chute
Trifolium agrarium L.1858not recorded
A photograph of the species Zizia aurea, not of this specimenZizia aurea (L.) W.D.J.Koch1859A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Cladonia squamosa, not of this specimenCladonia squamosa Hoffm.1870M.E.T.Hardwick
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1894G. E. SternLake Lashaway
Calosoma calidum (Fabricius, 1775)1896Knab, Frederick (1865-1918)Massachusetts

All 368 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Jedediah Foster Homesite: 2 producers, 2 past producers. 2 still produce. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bond Washed Sand and StoneSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Cemetery Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
E W Sykes PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms near this property

21 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Brookfield, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 3 flood, 1 tornado. 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
March 2010FloodWest Brookfield$1,350,000Ten homes along Quaboag Street were flooded when Quaboag Pond overflowed its banks. Route 148, Quaboag and Mill Streets were flooded.
July 2002Tornado (F1)West Brookfield$50,000Brief F1 touchdown
September 2016Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$15,000Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds. An amateur radio operator recorded a 67 mph wind gust on their home weather station.
June 2006LightningWest Brookfield$15,000no account filed
August 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$10,000In West Brookfield, a tree was down on a house and car on New Braintree Rd. A tree fell onto a roof of a house on East Main St. A tree was down on wires on Myrick Rd. Multiple trees and wires were down on Ragged Hill Rd.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$10,000Trees on Church Street and Woods Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$10,000Trees on Long Hill Road and on Central Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$10,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$8,000Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds in several locations across West Brookfield, including one downed onto wires on Draper Rugged Hill Road, one downed onto a car on East Main Street, and one blocking Brian Hill Road.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$2,000In West Brookfield, trees and wires were reported down.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$800In Warren, a tree and wires were down on Old Douglas Rd.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$500In West Brookfield, a tree was down on Birch Hill Road.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield$300In West Brookfield, a funnel cloud was sighted by several emergency management officials from 5 surrounding towns. No actual tornado reached the ground. However, straight line winds downed wires on Checkered Lane.
May 2025HailWest Brookfield-Quarter sized hail fell in West Brookfield.
September 2023HailWest Brookfield-In West Brookfield, there was quarter size hail.
August 2020FloodWest Brookfield-In West Brookfield, Snow Rd at Rt 9 was closed due to flooding.
August 2020FloodWest Brookfield-In West Brookfield, Shea Rd was closed from Birch Hill Rd to Wickaboag Rd due to flooding.
April 2019HailWest Brookfield-Amateur radio operators reported quarter size hail in West Brookfield.
May 1998HailWest Brookfield-no account filed
May 1998HailWest Brookfield-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindWest Brookfield-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Worcester County

Maps showing this location

21 surveys

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.

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
West Brookfield Center Historic District0.7 miles1990
West Brookfield Center Historic District (Boundary Increase)0.9 miles2006
Indian Cemetery, Old1.0 miles2006
Brookfield Cemetery1.3 miles2003
Brookfield Common Historic District1.8 miles1990
Elm Hill Farm Historic District2.1 miles1991

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 13000623 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Worcester CountyAll 686 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.