National Register reference number.76000307- 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
1887 to 1997
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18871997
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Lancaster town. The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
of war, generally proved faithful to the English, and their services as scouts were invaluable. Among these none deserves better to be honored in Lancaster story than James Wiser, alias Quanapaug or Quanapohit, whose courage and fidelity would have saved the town from the massacre of 1676, had not his timely warning been unwisely discredited by the apparently lethargic Governor and his slumberous Council.
The dwellings, as at first, were mainly in two scattered groups of about equal numbers, one occupying the Neck, the other extending along the slope of George Hill. But Prescott with two of his sons now lived near his grist and saw-mills, a mile to the south, the "mill-path" leading thither. John Moore and James Butler had built upon Wataqnadock. Several of the houses were more or less fortified, being furnished with flankers or surrounded with a stockade. Of those known were: Prescott's, at the mills ; Richard Wheeler's, in South Lancaster ; Thomas Sawyer's, not far north from the house of Sally Case, his descendant ; Rev. Joseph Rowlandson's and Cyprian Stevens'. It is supposed that a few soldiers from the older towns were distributed among these garrisons.
The assault of the savages was made at sunrise, and simultaneously in five places. The people were nearly all in shelter of the feebly fortified garrisonhouses. John Ball, who had for some reason remained in his owu dwelling, was butchered together with his wife and an infant; and two older children were carried away captive. Though the position of Ball's house is not exactly known, it was probably on the George Hill range. At John Prescott's, his grandson, Ephraim Sawyer, was killed. Of the garrison of RicharcTWheeler, which was in South Lancaster, five were slain : Richard Wheeler, Jonas Fairbanks, Joshua Fairbanks, Henry Farrar and another unknown. The first three were shot by Indians, who climbed upon the roof of the barn and could thence fire down over the palisades. The other two were waylaid while out of the garrison upon some errand.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 105 fires within 5 miles of South Lancaster Engine House
between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,731 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
49
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
25
Recreation and ceremony
14
Arson/incendiarism
5
Smoking
5
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
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 1,728 specimens
collected within 10 miles of South Lancaster Engine House between 1859 and 1974: 1,128 Animalia, 294 Plantae, 293 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 5 Chromista, 2 Protozoa.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett, A. G. Chandler 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
13 workings within 5 miles of South Lancaster Engine House: 8 past producers, 4 producers, 1 prospect.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Iron, Zinc. 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
South Lancaster, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 2020 and 2026: 2 thunderstorm wind.
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.
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.
Statement of significance
BUILDER/ARCHITECT C.A. Woodruff The South Lancaster Engine House was built by the town in 1888, and is significant as the earliest fire station in the area still being used for its original purpose. Little is known of the Fire Department before 1887. At Town Meeting of 1829, 13 fire wards were chosen. By 1848 a Fire Department Organization was formed. For a forty-year period, between 1838 and 1877, the only Fire Department expense was in 1848 when $49.75 was spent for fire hooks and ladders. In 1877, however, a committee recommended the purchase of a "Halls Improved Fire Engine," the formation of an engine company, that a reservoir be built between the Bulfinch Church and Town Hall, and that a place be built for safe keeping of the new engine.
At the Town Meeting of June 18, 1887, it was decided that $3,500 would be expended to build a station for the Fire Department in South Lancaster. Three persons were nominated to the building committee, John E. Thayer, Henry F. Hosmer, and Carter J. Lewis. Construction began in 1887, and was completed in March of 1888. Expenditures were $45 tor the architect Mr. C.A. Woodruff, $2,000 for the construction to Mr. C. H. Harris, and $1,445 to H.F. Hosmer for finish work. Since the building was completed, it has been in continuous use as a fire station. The only change has been the re- placement of the original swinging doors with overhead doors. Some townspeople remember when there used to be an engine on one side and two horse- or man-drawn wagons on the other, one of which was a sleigh.
There was, too, a bell in the tower that had a most frightening sound.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76000307, 14 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.
Block
