Photograph by Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger), Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Clara Barton Homestead
Built in 1818 (colonial architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. 19 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.
From the record
One of 686 National Register listings published here for Worcester County · listed in 1977 · category: Building · built in 1818, colonial architecture.
National Register reference number.77000202- 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.
The town of Oxford lies in the southerly part of Worcester County, only separated from the State of Connecticut by the town of Webster. The central village is built on an extensive plain, surrounded here and there by hills, and its main street is a mile long, nearly one hundred and fifty feet wide and lined by rows of thrifty trees. This avenue, perfectly straight and level, gives to the town a generous and wholesome expression - especially attractive to the stranger. The merchant or professional man, weary with work and enfeebled in constitution, could find no spot within the limits of our State where he could rest his body and brain with so much certainty of recuperation as in one of the many cheerful homesteads along this stately thoroughfare. The territory of which the town is composed was originally within the jurisdiction of the Nipmuck tribe of Indians. On the 16th of March, 1682, the Massachusetts Colony Court passed the following order:
When-a^, The General Court of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, in the year one thousand six Inindred and sixty-two, granted to said .Toseph Dudley, William Stoughton and their associates, a certain tract of land in the Nipmuck country eight miles square for a township, as may be seen more at large by the recoi'ds of the General Court, pursuant whereuuto, and for the uses aforesaid, the said Joseph Dudley, William Stoughton and their associates, in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-six, brought over thirty families of French Protestants into this country and settled them upon the eastern part of the said tract of land, and reserved, granted and set apart 11,2.50 acres for a village called Oxford for the said families, and bouuded it as by a plat upon record will more fully appear ; but forasmuch as the said French families have many years since wholly left and deserted their settlements in said village and the said lands, as well by their deserting the same and refusing to return upon proclamation made for that end. as by the voluntary surrender of most of them, are now reinvested in and restored to and become the estate and at the disposition of the original proprietors, their heirs and successors for the ends aforesaid.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Clara Barton Homestead
between 2015 and 2020, burning about 25 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
11
Recreation and ceremony
7
Railroad operations and maintenance
6
Smoking
6
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Arson/incendiarism
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 1,696 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Clara Barton Homestead between 1839 and 1975: 946 Plantae, 461 Animalia, 264 Fungi, 17 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista, 4 Protozoa.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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
20 workings within 5 miles of Clara Barton Homestead: 16 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron. 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
Oxford, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 8 flood, 3 hail, 1 funnel cloud.
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.
Six inch diameter branches and several large trees were downed by thunderstorm winds in the Hodgesville Dam area of Oxford. Also, two utility poles were damaged. In East Charlton, trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
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.
Description of the property
The Clara Barton Homestead in Oxford is sited on a corner lot of about 4/5.acre; set back 25' from Clara Barton Road and 5' in from Ennis Road. The house lot is a part of the larger Clara Barton Diabetic Camp. The surrounding area is wooded; the stone wall lined Clara Barton Road was declared a Scenic Road in 1975 by the town. The house is a simple "Cape" in style of 1½ stories and has a ridge roof with gables to the side and a center chimney. The fenestration is 6/6 and is framed by wooden blinds. The facade is five bays wide with a center entry. The entrance is framed by an arched lattice-work trellis. The side elevations are 4 bays deep. On the eastern side of the house is an el 5 bays wide and 3 bays deep. One interesting feature of the house is the internal well in the kitchen.
The interior is almost unchanged from its appearance during Ms. Barton's lifetime. The only change is a small caretaker's apartment in a converted shed to the rear of the house. Just east of the house of the Clara Barton Homestead is the barn. It is a simple 2 story ridge roofed structure sheathed in shingles with 6/6 fenestration. The barn is used by the Diabetic Camp during the summer recreation. Surrounding the house and barn are the 5 modern administration buildings and 9 cabins of the Diabetic Camp.
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT Captain Stephen Barton The Clara Barton Homestead is significant as the birthplace, and home for thirty-two years, of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. She was born here on December 25, 1821 and lived here until she went to Borden- town, New Jersey. Captain Stephen Barton, Clara's father, built the house in 1818. He was a veteran of the Indian Campaigns. The Barton family was prominent in local affairs. Clara taught in Oxford and it was said "aid (ed) much in...improving the schools of the town." In later years she often returned to Oxford and this house. In 1921 the Unitarian-Universalist Federation of Women acquired the property and the Federation maintains it as a museum house. The house contains many of the original Barton Family furnishings and belongings.
"The spot dearest to me, the most like home, is the old house where my youth was passed, where I played and romped and studied, and as I thought, worked. It has many a time come to me to buy that house and hold it just for old memories sake." * *Barton, Clara; unpublished letters 9
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 77000202, 10 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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