BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a nineteenth-century public building. Not a photograph of this place.

Fruitlands

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. 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

one of 500 National Register listings in Worcester County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Worcester County.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
  • Address. Prospect Hill, Harvard, 01451
  • When was it listed? 1974-03-19
  • Category. building
  • Township. Harvard town
  • National Register reference number. 74001761 - 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

74 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 74 fires within 5 miles of Fruitlands between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,686 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning32
Missing data/not specified/undetermined24
Recreation and ceremony7
Equipment and vehicle use5
Smoking3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
20 September 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
1 September 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 August 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 August 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined300 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDEVENS
10 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 2,108 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,108 specimens collected within 10 miles of Fruitlands between 1859 and 1974: 1,204 Animalia, 539 Plantae, 345 Fungi, 11 Unrecorded, 8 Chromista, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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 Exidia glandulosa (Bull.) Fr.Exidia glandulosa (Bull.) Fr.1896F. O. GroverProspect Hill
Specimen of Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Bromus sterilis, not of this specimenBromus sterilis L.1879C. E. Faxon
A photograph of the species Megascops asio, not of this specimenMegascops asio asio (Linnaeus, 1758)1879Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collectionGroton
A photograph of the species Strix varia, not of this specimenStrix varia varia Barton, 17991880Smith, J. C.; Thomas Wilmer Dewing collectionGroton
unnamed1881Sargent, F. L.Groton, Mass. [Massachusetts]
A photograph of the species Conocephalum conicum, not of this specimenConocephalum conicum (L.) Underw.1881Charles W. Swan
A photograph of the species Hypericum gentianoides, not of this specimenHypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.1881Fredrick L SargentLunenburg
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer

All 2,108 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Fruitlands: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Kyanite. 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
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Keating Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Keating Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Bolton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Hazen PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Joy Contracting TcSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Kanis PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lancaster PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Shirley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms near this property

13 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harvard, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2021: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2010Thunderstorm WindHarvard$20,000Multiple trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindHarvard$15,000Trees on Scott Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2016LightningHarvard$10,000A barn on Still River Depot Road was struck by lightning, causing a small fire on the 2nd floor.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindHarvard$5,000Two trees were downed by thunderstorm winds, one of them was blocking one side of Route 111.
May 2014HailHarvard$5,000Golfball size hail damaged a Massachusetts Environmental Police cruiser as they traveled between Interstate 495 and Route 2 through the center of Harvard.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindHarvard$2,000In Harvard, multiple trees were down on Houghton Lane.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindHarvard$2,000At 5:35 PM EST a large tree and wires were reported down on Warren Avenue in Harvard.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Trees and power lines down near Bull Park.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Trees and power poles downed.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Trees down on Warren Road.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindHarvard-Trees were reported uprooted and wires knocked down. About 1500 electrical customers lost power.
July 1999HailHarvard-no account filed
July 1996HailHarvard-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Still River Baptist Church1.3 miles1996
Lane, Anthony, House4.1 miles1976
Ponakin Bridge4.2 miles1979
Old Settlers' Burying Ground5.3 miles2019
Middle Cemetery5.3 miles2019
Atherton Bridge5.4 miles1979

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 74001761 in Record Group 79.
Worcester CountyAll 500 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.