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
“The Harlow Old Fort House is a First Period historic house at 119 Sandwich Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts.”
Wikipedia article Harlow Old Fort House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.
National Register reference number.74001762- 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.
In preparing the work the records of the town of Bridgewater, and of its several parishes and churches, have been the first and principal sources, whence the materials have been derived. The old Colony and Plymouth county records have furnished also valuable information. Judge Davis' improved edition of Morton's, New England Memorial, Farmer's Register, the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, and various local histories have also been advantageously consulted. But so many and so various have been the sources, both public and private, from which information and facts have been obtained, that it would be difficult, if recollected, to enumerate them. The loss of all the early records of Duxbury previous to 1G54, which are said to have been burnt, is greatly to be regretted, as it was the parent town of Bridgewater, the first home and residence in this country of most of our fathers and original settlers in this then Plantation. It may well be supposed those records would have furnished us with much valuable information. The Colony records of births and deaths previous to 1CI7 are also lost, some of the first leaves by time or accident having been destroyed, which to the antiquarian is a deprivation much to be deplored.
Bridgewater was originally a plantation granted to Duxbury. When the township of Marshfield became a separate and distinct corporation, Duxbury, from which Marshfield had been principally taken, applied to the Old Colony court, at Plymouth, for a grant of common land, or, as they expressed it, " an extension to the westward," as a compensation for the great loss of territory they had thus sustained. We find in the records the following order of court relating to it : -
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 296 fires within 5 miles of Harlow Old Fort House between
2006 and 2020, burning about 89 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 4 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
Debris and open burning
198
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
56
Misuse of fire by a minor
26
Arson/incendiarism
4
Recreation and ceremony
4
Natural
3
Smoking
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Equipment and vehicle use
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 2,447 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Harlow Old Fort House between 1816 and
1975: 1,786 Animalia, 398 Plantae, 186 Fungi, 59 Chromista, 14 Protozoa, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by -- Russell, A., A. C. Mathieson 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
2 workings within 5 miles of Harlow Old Fort House: 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Plymouth, the town this property stands in, in 43 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 13 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 7 heavy rain, 4 flood.
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.
Police reported a road flooded, with water half-way up the doors of a car. Street unspecified. Report relayed by amateur radio. The public reported 2.07 of rain with this localized storm.
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
2,062 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.
Statement of significance
T 1677 The 1677 Harlow Old Fort House is not only one of the oldest houses in Plymouth but was also in continual ownership by the Harlow family and itsconnections for 224 years. It is also significant as the home of William Harlow. According to the Records of the Town of Plymouth at a town meeting held July 29,1669, there was granted to Sergeant William Harlow, a man of prominence in the Colony, " a little knowl or parcel of land on the westerly side of the roadway to sett a new house on". This site was a part of the pastures allotted to the freemen of Plymouth for grazing lands for their cattle, and on its southerly boundary was a large watering hole. Here William Harlow built his house in 1677.
The Harlow Old Fort House, sometimes called the "Water Hole House", is one of the few buildings now remaining in Plymouth which was built within the life- time of any of thosewho came in the MAYFLOWER. Of particular interest is the fact that it was framed with oak timbers from the old fort which, as Davis celates, " was built in 1622 on the top of the hill under which the town was located." The first fort was dismantled at the close of King Philip's. War, when danger from Indian depredation had passed. Sgt.Harlow obtained the timbers for his house. The heavy beams are still to be seen in the walls and ceilings of the first floor rooms. On some of them are the mortices made in fitting the frame of the old fort.
On one of the beams, a long strap hinge was found, on which the gate of the old fort hung; the hinge is now in Pilgrim Hall.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 74001762, 9 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.
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