Photograph by Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger), Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Thayer Public Library
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. 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
“The Thayer Public Library is a public library located in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts with 102,000 books, 200 periodical subscriptions, and 8,000 videos, DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks. The library is a member of the Old Colony Library Network.”
Wikipedia article Thayer Public Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 249 National Register listings in Norfolk County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Norfolk County.
National Register reference number.78000446- 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
317 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 317 fires within 5 miles of Thayer Public Library between
2015 and 2020, burning about 193 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 ceremony
219
Smoking
54
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
30
Debris and open burning
9
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Fireworks
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
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 7,379 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Thayer Public Library between 1815 and
1975: 3,652 Plantae, 2,107 Animalia, 1,460 Fungi, 77 Protozoa, 45 Chromista, 28 Unrecorded, 10 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), A C Gibson, A Phelps Wyman 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
18 workings within 5 miles of Thayer Public Library: 10 producers, 8 past producers.
10 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Braintree, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 5 flood, 3 lightning, 3 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.
A house on Central Avenue caught fire after being struck by lightning. The fire spread quickly turning into a three alarm fire and causing substantial damage to the house. No one was home at the time of the fire.
A trained spotter reported a wind gust to 62 mph. Numerous trees and wires across Braintree and Holbrook were downed by thunderstorm winds. One of these trees landed on a car on Roseway Street in Holbrook.
Heavy rain resulted in street flooding in several communities across Norfolk County. In Walpole, 50 to 75 feet of Pleasant Street was closed because of water four feet deep in the street. In Norwood, a vehicle was stuck in flood waters with the road impassable. And in Braintree, Union Street was flooded from poor drainage overflow where it crosses under the MBTA railroad bridge.
In Braintree at 605 PM EDT, a resident reported a 64 mph wind gust on their home anemometer. Damage in the immediate area was mostly downed tree limbs.
Route 37 was flooded near 275 Hancock Street. Traffic was diverted down Washington Street to Jefferson Street. Common Street from Granite to Washington was closed due to flooding.
Three to five inches of rain fell across the south Boston metro area. Grossman Drive and the underpass for the MBTA train tracks were flooded in Braintree. Also, Forbes Road near the bus terminal was flooded. In Holbrook, several roads flooded including South Franklin Street, Clara and Loud Roads, and Abington Avenue between Weymouth Street and White Road.
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
1,782 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
Thayer Public Library is located in a mixed area of civil, commercial and residential buildings. The 36'x58' one story, rectangular building is sited on about one acre of simply landscaped grounds. The Renaissance Revival style structure has a slate hipped roof and two chimneys. The brick masonry walls rise from a continuous, finished granite belt above the granite foundation. Corners are quoined, and the deep eaves and moulded cornice are supported by granite consoles rising from a continuous narrow granite stringcourse. The three bay wide facade faces east and is dominated by the center entry. The paired doors are topped by a multi-light transom and set within a round arch with key and boss in spandrels. The entrance is framed by projecting pilaster and a triangular projecting pediment.
The fluted pilasters are interrupted by three rusticated blocks and set upon high bases. Fenestration on the facade consists of paired, double tiered 2/2 sash framed by granite pilaster and segmental arch with key and boss in the spandrels. The top pair of windows are cut to fit the arch. Fenestration on the side elevations consists of a single double tiered 2/2 sashkand framed by the same granite pilaster and arch as the facade. The rear elevation istfour bays wide. The two end bays are composed of paired 2/2 sash set on top of longer paired 1/1 sash. Above these flat arched windows are single width round arches with granite key filled now with brick.
The center bays are com- posed of narrow, single round arched 2/2 sash set above, on the north a long 1/1 sash, and on the south a multi-light transom and door reached by a steel staircase running against the building. In the partially exposed basement are four simple segmental axched openings now boarded over.
/ARCHITECT Hammatt and Joseph E. Billings STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Thayer Public Library is significant for its architecture and as the first public library in Braintree. Thayer Public Library was designed by Hammat and Joseph E. Billings. The Billings brothers were well known designers in New England in the mid-19th century and often collaborated. Joseph designed many of the early structures at the Charlestown Navy Yard as well as Grace Episcopal Church in Lawrence. Boston Museum, the National Monument to our forefathers at Plymouth, the original College Hall at Wellesley College, and for the earlier canopy over the Plymouth Rock. and Eor the eatler canogy over Hammat is known for the old He was also an artist and book illustrator.
The Braintree Public Library and this building were the result of the generosity of General Sylvanus Thayer, a Braintree native and retired officer of the Army Engineers. Thayer also endowed the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and the Thayer Academy of Braintree. Thayer donated $10,000 to thettown for construction of a fireproof structure for the library. He also lent the town another $10,000 and gave an additional $10,000 for support of the institution. After Thayer's death, the affairs of the new free public library were directed by his friend, the Braintree lawyer, Asa French. French had control of the property transferred to thettrustees and arranged appointments to insure that they would always be dominated by appointments of the Thayer Academy.
For over 80 years, the town of Braintree sup- ported the library, although the town did not own the building or hold full control. The town gained title in the 1950's when a larger building was built elsewhere as a library. Since then, this building has been used as offices for the municipal water department.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78000446, 8 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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