BlockBefore
Photograph of Swampscott Town Hall
Photograph by Daderot at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Elihu Thomson House

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1892.

From the record

One of 480 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • Listed as. Thomson, Elihu, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 33 Elmwood Ave., Swampscott
  • When was it listed? January 1976
  • Category. building
  • Architectural style. Colonial Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 76002002 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Then and now

1892 to 1997

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Elihu Thomson House, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet covering Elihu Thomson House, surveyed 1892

Fires near this property

60 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 60 fires within 5 miles of Elihu Thomson House between 2003 and 2020, burning about 247 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 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
Recreation and ceremony22
Smoking12
Arson/incendiarism6
Debris and open burning5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Fireworks3
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
27 September 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2017Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlPEABODY
1 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Elihu Thomson House: 2 plants, 1 unknown, 1 producer, 1 occurrence. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Mercury. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Lynn Eastern Smelt & Refin CorpGold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, MercuryPlant
Saugus DepositIronOccurrence
Swampscott PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Swampscott QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Swampscott QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Sir John Humphreys House0.2 miles1990
Olmsted Subdivision Historic District0.2 miles2002
Swampscott Railroad Depot0.4 miles1998
Swampscott Fish House0.5 miles1985
Diamond Historic District0.8 miles1996
Mary Baker Eddy House0.9 miles

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 76002002 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Essex CountyAll 480 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • 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.
  • 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.