A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. 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
“USS Lionfish (SS-298), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy named for the lionfish. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and is now on display at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.”
Wikipedia article USS Lionfish, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1976 · category: Structure · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
National Register reference number.76002270- 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
24 since 2002
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 24 fires within 5 miles of USS LIONFISH (SS0298) National Historic Landmark between
2002 and 2020, burning about 54 acres in total. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
11
Arson/incendiarism
4
Debris and open burning
4
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
Recreation and ceremony
1
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 1,068 specimens
collected within 10 miles of USS LIONFISH (SS0298) National Historic Landmark between 1844 and
1975: 590 Animalia, 368 Plantae, 77 Fungi, 29 Chromista, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A E Schuyler, A. B. Hervey, A. Macrae 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 USS LIONFISH (SS0298) National Historic Landmark: 1 unknown, 1 plant.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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
Fall River, the town this property stands in, in 24 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 10 flood, 5 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 2 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.
At 1:25 PM EST, several cars were trapped in flood waters on Quequechan Street and Warren Street, near a Walmart store. The two streets were closed due to flooding.
Warren Street was flooded and impassable. A car was stuck in flood waters on Pleasant Street at the intersection with Quarry Street. Manhole covers popped off due to flooding on Globe 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
2,898 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
DATE many times The submarine Lionfish is semi-permanently moored in Battleship Cove on the Taunton River just north of the Braga Bridge. It is protected to the east by filled land and a high embankment and is bordered to the north by the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. and to the west by the U.S.S. Massachusetts. The Lionfish, a representative of the Balao class of fleet submarine used in World War II, is 311 feet in length, 27 feet in width and has a pressure hull 16 feet in diameter. The ship's maximum speed is 20 knots and has a submerged displacement of 2,415 tons. The deck is made of teakwood, and the submarine's exterior is painted black and haze gray.
The Lionfish is a pre-snorkle type submarine, operating underwater on batteries, and powered by four engines in a diesel electric system delivering 6,500 horsepower. The ship was originally armed with two 5 inch deck guns, two 40 mm guns and ten 21 inch torpedo tubes. The crew consisted of 76 officers and enlisted men who were berthed in every available inch of space, including over the torpedo tubes. The ship escaped the guppying process (the complete exterior and interior alteration that most World War II submarines ex- perienced after the war) and retains its original design and fittings.
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT The Lionfish is a significant, almost intact example of the standard fleet type sub- marine which played an important part in World War II. The Lionfish was built in Philadelphia and launched on November 7, 1943. She was fitted out at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, and was commissioned on November 1, 1944. After trials and training in the Atlantic the Lionfish joined the U.S. Pacific Fleet on February 5, 1945. The ship made two war patrols near Japanese waters and is credited with the sinking of an I-class submarine and a 100 ton schooner. At the end of the war the Lionfish was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, but was re- conmissioned for active service in 1951.
After trials and training in the Pacific it reported to the Atlantic Fleet where it operated in the Mediterranean and Atlantic until December 9, 1953, when the submarine was again placed in the reserve, based at New London, Cornecticut. Ihe Liontish was used as a training submarine from 1959 to 19/2 when it was moved to Battleship Cove. The Lionfish does not meet the National Register age criteria. However, since the ship - is virtually intact and serves as an educational tool we feel that its nomination con- stitutes a valid exception to the criteria.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76002270, 16 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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