BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a civic town hall with a clock tower and a portico. Not a photograph of this place.

North Town Hall

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. 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

“Although the English regarded the Indians as heathen, whose inheritance God would give to His people, yet the Rev. John Eliot and others knew that they had souls, and so were to be brought to a knowledge of the truth.”

History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts (1917). Machine-read text.

one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 2015 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.

Sources: the county history on the Internet Archive · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 objectss, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 31 Princeton St., Chelmsford, 01863
  • When was it listed? 2015-10-13
  • Category. building
  • Township. Chelmsford town
  • National Register reference number. 15000732 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

The ground it stands on

81,724 words

The chapter on Chelmsford Town in A Sketch of the History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, published 1890 names Chelmsford. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The Parkers were from Woburn. There were five brothers. Of the four whose names were among the petitioners, none of them long remained in Chelmsford. James went, about 1660, to Groton, where he became the leading man of the town. Joseph also went to Groton and after to Dunstable. Jacob was the first town clerk of Chelmsford, but soon removed to Maiden, and John went to Billerica. The Chamberlins were also from Woburn. Thomas and Edmund settled in Chelmsford and William in Billerica. John Baldwin and George Farley, also from Woburn, settled in Billerica. The first birth in that town was Samuel, the son of George Farley. James Blood and John Nutting took up land here, but both soon went

Passage source: A Sketch of the History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, published 1890.

The plan of the town as laid out by the committee, as here shown, was engraved from a tracing from the original in the Massachusetts Archives, Ancient Plans, vol. 112, p. 81. The space marked " India Land" was the tract reserved for the Indians. Joe ces of the apostle, Eliot, about the time of the grant to the Pawtuckets. At the time of King Philip's War the Indians mostly abandoned their reservation, and it was encroached upon by people from adjoining towns, mostly from Groton. Boundary controversies grew out of this. The Chelmsford line bordered upon this tract for a considerable distance.

Passage source: A Sketch of the History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, published 1890.

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 Chelmsford Town - 81,724 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

101 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 101 fires within 5 miles of North Town Hall between 2001 and 2020, burning about 64 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 26 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined33
Arson/incendiarism26
Debris and open burning21
Recreation and ceremony11
Smoking4
Natural2
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use1
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
6 September 2002Smokingunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
26 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
9 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
5 August 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
4 August 2002Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
18 August 2002Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
17 August 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 508 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 508 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Town Hall between 1898 and 1975: 334 Plantae, 97 Animalia, 44 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 3 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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
A photograph of the species Exosporium pusillum, not of this specimenExosporium pusillum P.Karst.1898King C. A.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Aristida dichotoma, not of this specimenAristida dichotoma Michx.1899E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis1899RorerEast Billerica
A photograph of the species Bidens cernua, not of this specimenBidens cernua L.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Fuirena pumila, not of this specimenFuirena pumila (Torr.) Spreng.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Galium tinctorium, not of this specimenGalium tinctorium (L.) Scop.1899not recorded
A photograph of the species Menispora libertiana, not of this specimenMenispora libertiana Sacc. & Roum. ex Sacc.1899RorerEast Billerica
A photograph of the species Muhlenbergia uniflora, not of this specimenMuhlenbergia uniflora (Muhl.) Fernald1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Polygonella articulata, not of this specimenPolygonella articulata (L.) Meisn.1899E. F. Williams
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.1900Thaxter, R.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Boletus frostii, not of this specimenBoletus frostii J.L.Russell1900A. W. Flint
Polygala sanguinea L.1900E. F. Williams

All 508 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 31 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 31 workings within 5 miles of North Town Hall: 18 past producers, 9 producers, 4 plants. 13 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Graphite. 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
Dracut DepositCobalt, NickelPast Producer1876, 1939
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.GraphitePlant
Chelmsford MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.GraphitePlant
West Chelmsford QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Fletcher Westford QuarryGraniteProducer
Forest Road QuarryGranitePast Producer
Guilmette Bros GraniteGranitePast ProducerGranite
H E Fletcher CoGranitePast ProducerGranite
Le Masurier Granite Quarry IncGranitePast ProducerGranite

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this property

25 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chelmsford, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 2003 and 2024: 16 thunderstorm wind, 4 flood, 3 hail, 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2016Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$45,000Trees and power lines on Jonathan Lane, Warren Avenue and Spaulding Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. A tree in Chelmsford center and another on Boston Road were downed onto cars.
September 2016Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$20,000Trees were downed onto Chelmsford Street. Large limbs were downed throughout town. An air conditioning unit was blown off its support on an office roof, but remained on the roof. Trees were downed on Route 110 near Interstate 495.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindSouth Chelmsford$15,000At 5:30 PM EST, many trees and wires were brought down on Old Lowell Road and Chelmsford Road in Westford.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$15,000Three trees at the intersection of Grandview and Locke Roads were downed by thunderstorm winds.
February 2016Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$10,000Two large trees on Warren Avenue in Chelmsford were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$8,000Trees and power lines on Pine Hill Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. A large maple tree on Meehan Drive was downed onto a roof, destroying a portion of the chimney.
March 2022Thunderstorm WindSouth Chelmsford$7,000In Chelmsford, a large tree and wires were down on Hunt Road at Alcorn Road; a tree fell onto a house on Riverneck Road; a tree was down on Old Westford Road; and a tree was down on Westford Street.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindSouth Chelmsford$6,000At 5:35 PM EST, multiple trees were brought down on State Route 27 (Acton Road) in Westford and Chelmsford, near the town line.
September 2023Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$5,000In Chelmsford, numerous trees were down and snapped. Straight line SW to NE after the heavy rainfall.
March 2016Thunderstorm WindNorth Chelmsford$5,000A tree on Old Westford Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$5,000Several trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindNorth Chelmsford$5,000no account filed
August 2024Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$2,000In Chelmsford, there were reports of trees and wires down all over town.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindSouth Chelmsford$1,300In Chelmsford, there were trees and wires down on Robin Hill Road.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindNorth Chelmsford$800In North Chelmsford, trees were reported down on wires.
May 2008Thunderstorm WindWest Chelmsford$500A tree was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2023Flash FloodWest Chelmsford$200In North Chelmsford at 445 PM EDT (345 PM EST), Middlesex Street at Cedar Street was closed due to flooding. At 446 PM EDT, significant street flooding was reported on Old Westford Road behind the police station, per police department...relayed by amateur radio.
July 2023Flash FloodNorth Chelmsford-In Lowell, a Jeep was stuck in street flooding on Wellman Ave.
August 2023FloodWest Chelmsford-In Chelmsford, there was significant street flooding on Rt 110.
June 2023HailNorth Chelmsford-In North Chelmsford, dime size hail was reported.
July 2020HailWest Chelmsford-In Chelmsford, dime sized hail was reported.
August 2018FloodEast Chelmsford-At 3:44 PM EST, street flooding reached a depth of two to three feet on Gorham Street in Lowell.
October 2017FloodEast Chelmsford-At 1210 AM EST, street flooding was reported at the junction of Gorham and Moore Streets in Lowell. The Speen Street on-ramp to State Route 9 in Natick was flooded and impassable; Route 9 eastbound in Natick near the pumping station was flooded. State Route 9 westbound in Framingham was flooded near Temple Road. State Route 129 in Wilmington was flooded and impassable near the 99 Restaurant. Sections of Massachusetts Avenue and Summer Street in Arlington were closed to flooding. Somerville Avenue at Laurel Street in Somerville was flooded. A section of Lexington Street in Waltham was flooded and impassable. A section of Russell Street in Woburn was flooded. The Memorial Drive underpass at the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge was closed to flooding.
July 2017FloodEast Chelmsford-At 353 PM EST, the intersection of Moore and Gorham Street in Lowell was under two feet of water. There was also street flooding in the area of 131 South Street. At 411 PM EST, the intersection of South and Summer Streets was flooded and impassable. At 327 PM EST, sections of the VFW Parkway were reported flooded and impassable.
August 2011HailWest Chelmsford-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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
Bowers, Jerathmell, House1.4 miles1994
Chelmsford Glass Works' Long House1.6 miles1973
Allen House2.3 miles1982
Grace Universalist Church2.5 miles2011
Pawtucket Congregational Church2.7 miles2007
Keyes, Jonathan, Sr. House2.7 miles2019

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 15000732 in Record Group 79.
Middlesex CountyAll 1100 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.