National Register reference number.74002032- 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.
Then and now
1886 to 1994
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
108 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18861994
Fires near this property
303 since 2006
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 303 fires within 5 miles of Jabez Howland House
between 2006 and 2020, burning about 91 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
202
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
57
Misuse of fire by a minor
28
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 2,442 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Jabez Howland House between 1816 and 1975: 1,782 Animalia, 398 Plantae, 186 Fungi, 59 Chromista, 14 Protozoa, 3 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 Jabez Howland 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.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
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
Moved - Unexposed (Check One) X Original Site The clapboard and shingle Jabez Howland House was built in 1667. Howland acquired it a year after its construction by Jacob Mitchell. The house faces south, at right angles to the road, on a barren piece of land that was once adorned by large and handsome elms. Originally, the house had two rooms, one over the other, with the chimney, entry hall, and stair at the southwest corner of the facade. It was three bays wide and one deep. It still has the original oak frame, gunstock posts, summer beam, and single second floor boards. There is evidence of early whitewash on first floor ceiling beams and joists, demonstrationg that these members were originally exposed.
The Small windows are casement with leaded diamond panes and the front door and surround are unembellished. In 1750 the house was enlarged to the:west by the addition of a one room over one room unit, resulting in the present four hay width of the facade, Windows in this addition are 12/12, approximately twice the size of the 1667 casement openings. Iean-to's were added at various times, resulting in a two-bay deep structure, except where a small one story shed protrudes to the rear northwest. In 1941-42 the house was restored. The roof of the 1667 half was lowered to its original steep pitch and the leaded casement sash were replaced. The saltbox house is covered with clapboards on the south facade and east eleva- tion, and wood shingling on the north and west sides.
C= 3 C.3:4 10) RECÊÎVED MAY 1 6 1974 NATIONAL REGISTER BTLD U -
Statement of significance
The prime significanee of this house lies in its connection with the Howland family. Jabez Howland, b.1664, was the son of John Howland,b.1592, who came over on the Mayflower and married Elizabeth Tilley in 1623. John Howland was a signer of the Compact in Plymouth Harbor, November 21, 1620. In 1638 he bouglht the plantation of John Jenney at Rocky Nook in Kingston. He died in Plymouth in 1672, and "was the last man that was left of those that came over in the shipp called May Flower, that lived in Plymouth." (Plymouth Colony Records,1672) Son Jabez bought the house from Mitchell in 1668. Tradition has it that it is the only house standing that heard the voices of the Pilgrims, John and Elizabeth Howland. This was the first house in Plymouth to be "saved".
The Pilgrim John Howland Society, incorporated in 1911, bought the house in 1912 and, after needed repairs, opened it to the public. The Society subsequently acquired 20 acres of the John Howland site in Rocky Nook. The house is also an excellent example of two architectural periods combined in one structure. Its handsome clustered chimney is the dividing point for the two halves, which show their difference chiefly through their fenestration. EIn J21 13) RECEIVED MAY 1 6 1974 NATIONAL REGISTER 18
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 74002032, 7 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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