Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1975. 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
“Carney House is a historic house at 128 Mill Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The house was built in 1856, and is a wood-frame structure with Greek Revival styling.”
Wikipedia article Sgt. William H. Carney House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
National Register reference number.75000243- 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
27 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Carney, Sgt. William H., House between
2015 and 2020, burning about 19 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
13
Debris and open burning
7
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 2,214 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Carney, Sgt. William H., House between 1824 and
1975: 899 Animalia, 630 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
7 workings within 5 miles of Carney, Sgt. William H., House: 4 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. 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
1,846 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 home of Sergeant William H. Carney is located in an area a few blocks west of County Street, which had been the western boundary of the city before the 1840's. Like many of the neighboring houses, it was built in a period of expan- sion shortly before the Civil War when whaling in New Bedford was flourishing and the population was increasing rapidly. The clapboarded 23 story house sets on a high granite basement and faces north. It has a ridge roof with the gable end turned to the street as was frequently the case in mid-19th century vernacular architecture. Its facade is three-bayed on both stories, with the entrance set to the left. One original six-over-six window remains in the attic. There are two outside chimneys, each servicing a fireplace on both floors.
The window trim is very simple, as are the narrow cornerboards. The entrance opens to a narrow hallway on the interior, running the length of the main house, with the staircase to the left on the east wall of the building. A doorway on the right leads into a double parlor, formerly divided by large double doors. Another room is located behind the stairway. On the second floor there are four rooms. To the rear is a two story service ell, with the kitchen and pantries on the first floor and servants' quarters above. The interior decor is simple yet dignified. When restored, the present Victorian bracketed.
hood will be replaced by a Greek Revival doorway with pilasters and sidelights, and a wooden stoop with steps to the right.The original doorway possibly was Greek Revival style, in keeping with the character of the rest of the house, and the other houses in the neighborhood.
/ARCHITECT c.1850 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE This was the home of Sergeant William H. Carney, Civil War hero and the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was one of forty-six men who left New Bedford on March 4, 1863 to join the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first black regiment raised in a northern state. In the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina on July 18, 1863, Sergeant Carney was in the vanguard of the 54th. A hundred yards from the walls, the soldier carrying the regiment's national flag was hit by a barrage of bullets. Sergeant Carney seized the staff of the flag as the color bearer fell and led the charge to the walls of the fortress. Although he suffered two bullet wounds, he held the flag for more than an hour and was one of the last soldiers to retreat.
"Boys," he told his wounded comrades as he arrived at the field hospital, "the Carney was only 23 years old at the time of the Fort wagner attack. Born in 1840, he had gone to sea at the age of 15, and was settled in New Bedford when he enlisted in the Union Army. Carney served in the Union Army until June 30, 1864, when he was honorably discharged at Black Island, South Carolina, with a disability caused by the wounds he had received during the attack on Fort Wagner. He then spent several years in California. Upon his return to New Bedford in 1870, he purchased this home and worked as a letter carrier for thirty-one years. The home remained in the Carney family until 1938 when his daughter died and it became the headquarters of the Martha Briggs Educational Club.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 75000243, 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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