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Photograph of Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery
Photograph by Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. 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

“The Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery is a historic religious facility at 2 Central Street in the center of Wellesley, Massachusetts. The church is a brick Georgian Revival structure designed by Carrère and Hastings and built between 1918 and 1922.”

Wikipedia article Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 249 National Register listings in Norfolk County · listed in 2014 · category: Site · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Norfolk County.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 28 objectss, 3 structuress, 1 building, 1 site as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 2 Central St., Wellesley, 02482
  • When was it listed? 2014-09-22
  • Category. site
  • Township. Wellesley town
  • National Register reference number. 14000696 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

The ground it stands on

4,212 words

The chapter on Wellesley Town in History of the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, published 1917 names Wellesley. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

There has been a very steady growth of the town in buildings of a more or less public character, as witness the various dormitories and other buildings in the College grounds and vicinity, the Town Hall - the generous gift of Mr. Hunnewell - school buildings erected, the different business blocks at Wellesley and the Hills, also St. Andrew's church in Wellesley, and the Unitarian and Congregational church buildings in the Hills. Different residential sections have developed very attractively, as along Dover and Grove Streets in Wellesley, and Abbott Road, Belvedere, and Cliff Road, Wellesley Hills, and clusters of humbler homes on no less attractive sites, as on River Ridge, Newton Lower Falls and Garfield Farm, near the Boston and Worcester car station.

Passage source: History of the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, published 1917.

The town has shared with the rest of the world in improvements in transportation of goods and persons and facility of communication. In 1881 the only public conveyances to Boston, the workshop of most of our men, was over the Boston and Albany Railroad, but in 1896 the Natick and Cochituate began running, and in 1903, the Boston and Worcester, giving the inhabitants of Wellesley innumerable daily opportunities of reaching the city.

Passage source: History of the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, published 1917.

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 Wellesley Town - 4,212 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

122 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 122 fires within 5 miles of Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery between 2015 and 2020, burning about 53 acres in total. 1 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
Recreation and ceremony56
Missing data/not specified/undetermined38
Debris and open burning14
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Fireworks1
Other causes1
Natural1

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
9 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
3 September 2018Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWELLESLEY
22 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 11,350 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 11,350 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery between 1805 and 1975: 5,164 Animalia, 3,183 Plantae, 2,717 Fungi, 131 Protozoa, 94 Chromista, 41 Unrecorded, 20 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, ? ex Herb. W.G. Farlow, A C Gibson 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 Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.1900R. ThaxterStony Brook
Specimen of Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 1831Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 18311900not recordedSherborn
A photograph of the species Margaritifera margaritifera, not of this specimenMargaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758)1805Bryant, O.Wash Brook, So. Sudbury, Mass.
A photograph of the species Corydalis Vent., not of this specimenCorydalis Vent.1815Boott, F.M.B.Worcester turnpike, 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Corylus L., not of this specimenCorylus L.1815Boott, F.M.B.Worcester Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Hepatica Mill., not of this specimenHepatica Mill.1815Boott, F.M.B.Sweet Auburn.
A photograph of the species Nuphar Sm., not of this specimenNuphar Sm.1815Boott, J.W.Worcester Turnpike 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Sassafras J.Presl, not of this specimenSassafras J.Presl1815Boott, F.M.B.Worcester Turnpike, 6 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Thalictrum L., not of this specimenThalictrum L.1815not recordedWorcester Turnpike.
A photograph of the species Viola L., not of this specimenViola L.1815Boott, J.W.Worcester Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston, U.S.A. [Identical locality information is written on the reverse of the sheet.]
A photograph of the species Alnus Mill., not of this specimenAlnus Mill.1816not recordedBrighton, 4 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Aquilegia L., not of this specimenAquilegia L.1816not recordedBrighton 3½ miles from Boston.

All 11,350 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Wellesley Congregational Church and Cemetery: 7 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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 QuarryStonePast Producer
Arthur Scofield PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Greendale PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hi-Way Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Town of NatickSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of NeedhamSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Storms near this property

17 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wellesley, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 10 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2016Thunderstorm WindWellesley$50,000Trees and branches on Dewing Path, Route 16, Brooke Street, Leighton Road, and Weston Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. One of the trees fell onto a house and another broke a utility pole.
July 2013Thunderstorm WindWellesley$20,000A tree on Route 135 East near Wellesley College was downed by thunderstorm winds. Another tree on Chatham Circle and power lines on Howe Street also were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWellesley$20,000no account filed
August 2015Thunderstorm WindWellesley$10,000Trees on Weston and Dover Roads were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008LightningWellesley$10,000no account filed
October 2006FloodWellesley$8,000Significant urban flooding was reported in Wellesley.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindWellesley$5,000A large tree and wires on Pine Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2012Thunderstorm WindWellesley$5,000A tree and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWellesley$2,500In Wellesley, multiple trees were down on Kingsbury Street, Abbott Street, and Washington Street.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindWellesley$1,000At 1245 PM EST, a tree was brought down blocking Crescent Street in Wellesley.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindWellesley$800In Wellesley, a tree was down at the intersection of Walnut Street and Whittier Road. Also a large branch was down at 33 Cedar Street.
July 2023Flash FloodWellesley-In Wellesley, the 300 block of Washington St was completely flooded.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindWellesley-Two large branches and a couple of wires down.
August 2015HailWellesley-no account filed
May 2013HailWellesley-no account filed
July 2008HailWellesley-no account filed
June 1998Heavy RainWellesley-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.

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
Wellesley Town Hall0.2 miles1976
Intermediate Building1.4 miles1981
Wellesley Hills Branch Library1.7 miles2007
Fuller, Robert, House1.9 miles1987
Wellesley Farms Railroad Station2.2 miles1986
Whitney, Israel, House2.2 miles1988

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 14000696 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.