Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Brooks, Charles, House
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
“Medford owes its first settlement to the influence of Governor Cradock and Governor Winthrop. The first gentleman was the richest individual attached to the New England Company; and he gave his money with the freedom of an enthusiast.”
History of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts : from Its First Settlement, in 1630, to the Present Time, 1855 (1855). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.75000269- 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 writing this History, it has been my -wish to secure Medford such territory in time as its acres are territory in space. The gathering of these annals has been too long delayed. Time, moth, and rust have done thenfatal work on many valuable materials ; and some gentlemen, who felt a deep interest in their native town, have died without leaving any manuscript testimonies. When the history of New England shall be written, the true data will be drawn from the records of its towns. Now, therefore, in humble imitation of those States in our Union which have contributed each its block of granite, marble, or copper to the National Monument at Washington, I ask leave to offer Medford's historical contribution to the undecaying pyramidic monument which justice and genius will hereafter raise to the character and institutions of New England.
The records of the first forty years are lost. I have reproduced them, as far as I could, from documents in the General Court relating to our earliest history ; from several monuments of the first settlers, which are yet standing among us ; from authentic traditions which were early recorded ; and from collateral histories of the neighboring towns. To find the lost, and remember the forgotten, seems to be the province of the local annalist. From the moment I reached the first town-records of Medford (1674), I implicitly followed those excellent guides. Where I could save space by abbreviations, without altering the sense, I have occasionally done so in my quotations, and have used our modern orthography. The spirit of antiquarian research, now beginning to show itself, will lead to the discovery of many facts concerning the early history of Medford which are beyond my reach. These may soon render necessary a new history of the town ; and I hope it may be undertaken by a person whose ability and leisure will enable him to do far greater justice to the subject than has been within my power.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 77 fires within 5 miles of Brooks, Charles, House between
2015 and 2020, burning about 100 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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
Arson/incendiarism
28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
22
Debris and open burning
13
Recreation and ceremony
9
Smoking
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
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 1,830 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Brooks, Charles, House between 1898 and
1975: 802 Animalia, 563 Plantae, 399 Fungi, 28 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 12 Chromista, 9 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
11 workings within 5 miles of Brooks, Charles, House: 6 plants, 4 past producers, 1 producer.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite, 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
Medford, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 flash flood, 1 hail.
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.
Trees were downed on Corey Street and Riverside Avenue. A telephone pole was downed onto Massachusetts Avenue and wires on Lawrence Street were downed, all by thunderstorm winds.
At 12:52 AM EST, a large tree was down on a car and laying across Auburn Street in Medford. At the same time, a tree was reported down on Summer Street and a large tree was down on George Street.
In Winchester, a large tree was down on a house, which took the chimney off the house on Alden Lane. A tree was down on Cambridge Street by the boat club. A tree was down on wires on wires on the 30 block of Allen Road. Trees and wires were down on Ledyard Road. A tree was down on the 70 block of Lawson Road.
In Medford, multiple trees were reported downed. In Somerville, a tree was down on a house on Vernon Street and a large branch was down on power lines on Walker Street.
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
3,274 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 Charles Brooks House is located on top of a small hill about eight feet above the level of the street, and is a major focus of both the east and west approaches to Judkins Square. It was built in the late eighteenth century, c. 1780-90, and is one of two brick-end buildings left which typify a style popular in Medford in the eighteenth century. The building is 2½ stories high, with an asphalt shingled ridge roof and two chimneys in each side elevation. The front and back are covered with white clapboards and the ends are red painted brick. The facade is five bays wide with regular fenestration. The windows of the facade are 6/6 and are flanked by black louvered shutters.
The center entrance, flanked by four pane sidelights, and fluted pilasters, is surmounted by a modern returned pediment. Other exterior architectural features include a dentiled cornice and wooden quoins. Until this century the house had extensive kitchen and stable ells extending to the east. At present there are two additions; a 1 story ell, built in the 1930's extending from the west end of the house, and a two car garage with a hip roof, built in 1929, behind the ell. The ell repeats the architectural ornamentation of the house with a dentiled cornice, quoins, and pedimented doorway with side- Much of the interior, both from the original period of the house and from Federal and Greek Revival alterations, remains intact.
These include sunken panel doors and shutters, corner blocked door and window frames, and simple mantels and moldings. The lot, which is large by Medford standards, still shows evidence of the extensive gardens. The lilacs, for which the house was famous in the nineteenth century, remain.
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT The Charles Brooks House is significant as one of the last surviving brick-end houses built in Medford in the eighteenth centuxy. The house also acquires significance through its association with Charles Brooks, an important educational reformer and author during the nineteenth century. The design of the Charles Brooks house is based on the prototype established by the Isaac Royal House, built in the 1730's. This brick-end building style, with four end chimneys and a ridge roof, was popular in Medford in the eighteenth century- Most of the other houses have been destroyed; the Charles Brooks House is one of two left. The house, according to stylistic evidence, was built c. 1780-1790. By 1820 the house belonged to the estate of Isaac Brooks, Charles Brooks' uncle.
It was sold to William Gray of Boston in that year, and changed ownerhsip 4 times between 1830 and 1839. In 1839 Charles Brooks bought the house from Jonathan Fletcher and lived there periodically until his death in 1872, Charles Brooks, son of Jonathan Brooks, was born in his father's house in 1795. He graduated from Harvard College in 1816 and continued to study theology there until 1820 when he became pastor at the Third Congregational Society in (Cambridge. He remained in Cambridge until 1839, during which time he wrote a family prayer book that went through eighteen editions. He also traveled throughout Europe STEEE secarectios for a year and on his return to the United States in 1834, met Dr. Julius, a Prussian emissary sent to America to study the public institutions.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 75000269, 15 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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