Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1971. 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 Old Third District Courthouse in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, is located at the corner of Second and William streets. It was built in 1853 by Russell Warren in the Greek Revival architectural style, as the home of the New Bedford Institute for Savings, a local bank.”
Wikipedia article Old Third District Courthouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1971 · category: Building · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
National Register reference number.71000083- 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
29 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Old Third District Courthouse between
2015 and 2020, burning about 18 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
14
Debris and open burning
8
Recreation and ceremony
3
Smoking
2
Fireworks
1
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 2,231 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Old Third District Courthouse between 1824 and
1975: 911 Animalia, 635 Plantae, 570 Fungi, 87 Chromista, 23 Bacteria, 5 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Seymour, A. Clark 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
4 workings within 5 miles of Old Third District Courthouse: 2 producers, 1 past producer, 1 unknown.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
New Bedford, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 11 flood, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain.
The reports record 1 death. 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.
The Swansea Mall parking lot flooded. In New Bedford: Acushnet Avenue and one lane of Route 18 North were closed due to flooding at their intersections with Hillman Street, Acushnet Avenue was also flooded at Wamsutta Street, Buttonwood Brook went out of its banks flooding several yards on Hawthorne Street, Sawyer and Purchase Streets were flooded. Several basements flooded on Riverside Avenue in Somerset. In Fall River: McGee and Cedar Streets, New Boston Road, and Eastern Avenue were flooded with vehicles stuck in flood waters. In addition, numerous basements were flooded. Union Street and Burt Street near Tremont Street were flooded in Taunton.
Flooding continued after three to five inches of rain fell across the region earlier in the day. In New Bedford, Parker Street near New Bedford High School was closed due to continued flooding. Dartmouth Street was washed out between Rockland and Spooner Streets. The road was closed for repairs as the asphalt washed away. In Acushnet, Main Street near Clems Way was flooded and impassable.
Flooding was reported in New Bedford on parts of Route 18, Purchase Street, and at the intersection of Rockdale, Coggeshall and Sawyer Streets. Route 18 was closed in both directions for a time because of water up to 30 inches deep flooding the roadway. The I-195 eastbound exit ramp to Route 18 South was closed for a brief time due to water covering the roadway. In Fairhaven, flooding affected Route 6 at Green Street as well as on Bridge and Spring Streets, where as much as 18 inches of water covered the road. Two cars were stranded on Adams Street after attempting to drive through the flooded roadway.
Minor street flooding occurred along Route 18 by the Royal restaurant and Tarkiln Hill Road and Kings Highway. A car was stuck in flood waters at Weld Street and Route 18.
In New Bedford, Dartmouth Street at Rockdale Avenue was flooded to the point where DPW assistance was required. Padanaram Ave. was also flooded. Report relayed by amateur radio.
Portions of Acushnet Avenue (Route 18) and Coggeshall Street were closed near Interstate 195 due to flooding. Several cars were stuck in flood waters on Route 6 near Route 140.
Several roads were closed due to flooding in New Bedford. Some of these include: Coggeshall Street, portions of Route 18, and Sawyer Street. In Somerset, Buffington Brook went out of its banks, flooding County Street and a nearby park.
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
2,281 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.
Description of the property
The Third District Courthouse stands at the northeast corner of Williams and Second Streets in New Bedford. Built in 1853, this rectangular one- story building is covered by a low pitched roof. The three bay main facade, faced with ashlar brownstone, is situated at the pedimented gable end. full entablature of saddstone runs under the pediment and at the top of the side walls, which are brick. The building rests on a granite ashlar foundation. The foundation of the side walls extends beyond the main facade to form two granite porches. These flank the stairway leading to the entrance in the center bay. On each side of the entrance is a window beneath which is a balcony with sandstone balustrades, also supported by the projected foundation.
The door and windows on this facade have molded surrounds and are topped by deep cornices. The cornice above the door forms the horizontal member of a pediment. The main entablature consists of,an architrave of three plain Iasciae and a molded talon, a plain frieze, and a dentilled cornice. On the wal1 above the entrance and windows a panel is inset and inscribed "Third District Court of Bristol." The flat brick walls of the side facades are broken into three bays by sash windows. These are recessed and are topped by simple entablatures which project slightly. The window sills are flush with the walls; the wall space between the sills and the foundation is recessed. Iwo-stage, recessed panels are set above each window in the space between the window cornices and - architrave.
The foundation consists of three courses, the uppermost of which projects toc form a water table. These courses correspond to the elements comprising the porch balustrades.
The old Third District Courthouse is an integral part of the Waterfront Historic District in New Bedford, which has already been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Courthouse was constructed in 1853 to house the New Bedford Institution for Savings, which had been incorporated in 1825. From 1897 until 1940 (or shortly thereafter), the building served as the Third District Courthouse. The Courthouse was built from plans drawn by Russell Warren and closely resembles his earlier Institution for Savings in Providence. Warren's design is a rare example of a commercial building which shows the influence of the Italian Renaissance on mid-nineteenth century American architecture.
Although besically Greek Reyival in style, the building carries a number of Renaissance Revival decorative details. The Courthouse is one of the two buildings in the Waterfront Historic District designed by an architect of some renown; the other is the U.S. Customs House by Robert Mills, which faces the Courthouse across the intersection fof Second and William Streets. 6 AUG 31 1971 PECENED NATIONAL REGISTER 31 1971 NATIONAL REGISTER 191110 930
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 71000083, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
Block
