Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2016. 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 spirit of old Petersham, the spirit of this occasion, should be projected into the future. What is the mission of your public library, with its treasures of literature and other means of ministration to the higher life of the community?”
1754-1904. One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Petersham, Massachusetts, Wednesday, August the Tenth, 1904 (1904). Machine-read text.
one of 500 National Register listings in Worcester County · listed in 2016 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Worcester County.
YOU will permit me to express my pleasure in being present on this occasion, commemorative of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of my native town. I am glad to be here, and, in saying so, I surely voice the feeling of the inhabitants of Petersham, as well as of others who, either once identified with the town or tracing their ancestry here, have returned to join in this celebration.
Old Petersham, enthroned on her picturesque hills in the heart of our beloved Commonwealth of Massachusetts! " Here where the peace of the Creator lies"! Beautiful in her natural aspect, with a "charm of landscape and of sky" of which even the stranger owns the spell! What, then, does it mean to us who first opened our eyes upon these scenes, passing here the impressionable years of childhood and growing up to manhood and womanhood ? What fairer setting could we wish for the annals and traditions of our ancestors ? It was a profound truth uttered by the old classic, Humani nihil alienum (nothing is foreign to me). It is humanity that interests us, and it is the human element that to us invests these familar scenes with an especial attraction and significance.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 27 fires within 5 miles of District No. 4 School between
2015 and 2020, burning about 17 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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
18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
4
Recreation and ceremony
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
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 1,587 specimens
collected within 10 miles of District No. 4 School between 1839 and
1975: 815 Animalia, 464 Fungi, 284 Plantae, 15 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A. J. Stone, A. Melander 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 District No. 4 School: 5 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Sulfur. 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
Petersham, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 2001 and 2018: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning.
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.
Quarter to ping pong ball size hail fell for 8 minutes across Petersham. Accumulated hail reached depths up to 6 inches in spots. Some roof damage was reported as well as a few dented cars. Hail could still be seen in spots up to 14 hours after it fell.
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.
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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