Built in 1914 in the Tudor Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1979. 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 Brick Block is a historic commercial building on Main Street and Chatham Bars Road in Chatham, Massachusetts. Built in 1914 by a master mason, it is a distinctive local landmark in downtown Chatham, and a showcase of the bricklaying art.”
Wikipedia article Brick Block, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · built in 1914, Tudor Revival architecture, by Q58010903.
National Register reference number.79000323- 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 41 fires within 5 miles of Brick Block between
2003 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
18
Arson/incendiarism
5
Equipment and vehicle use
5
Debris and open burning
4
Recreation and ceremony
3
Smoking
2
Natural
2
Fireworks
1
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 1,520 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Brick Block between 1840 and
1975: 696 Animalia, 624 Plantae, 151 Fungi, 36 Unrecorded, 7 Bacteria, 6 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. Pealey, A. R. Hodgdon 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 Brick Block: 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: 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
Chatham, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 1999 and 2019: 2 flood, 1 heavy rain, 1 flash flood, 1 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.
In Chatham, a NWS survey found numerous large trees uprooted, consistent with 90+ mph microburst straight line winds, which is what remained after the Harwich tornado lifted. Two utility poles were leaning on Morris Island Road with one snapped in half and wires hanging low to the ground. A mesonet site reported a gust to 85 mph at 1115 AM EST (1215 PM EDT). Emergency management cited $426,000 in costs for the town to clean debris from roadways. Total damage estimates are much higher, accounting for individual homeowner and business claims.
At 112 AM EST, the Chatham Town Hall basement and parking lot were reported to be flooded. At 300 AM EST, the Automated Surface Observation platform at Chatham Airport reported storm total rainfall of 5.27 inches.
Several roads experienced street flooding, closing the roads. These included: Orleans Road at Frost Fish Road, Stepping Stones at Heritage Lane, Commerce Park South, Main Street near the Chatham Motel, and Route 28 near Stoney Hill 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
2,551 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
The Brick Block occupies a prominent corner lot in the commercial center of Chatham. It faces south on Main Street and west on Chatham Bars Road. The L-shaped structure is one of the most visible in Chatham's small downtown because of its size and its brick construc- tion. It is aland ½story Tudor Revival block distinguished by its inventive brickwork. A deeply projecting slate roof supported on heavy curved bracketts dominates the design. This is punctuated by a series of shed dormers and by jerkin headed gables at its corners. The gables are articulated by stickwork and exhibit the most unusual brickwork. The south and west elevations are lighted by large shop windows with transoms.
While most of those on the west retain their multi-pane construction, those on the south have been replaced by large single panes. The windows alternate with recessed doors, also with transoms. The gables and dormers contain regular 6/6 double hung sash which is also found on the rear of the building. The two main bonding patterns used on the building are English and Flemish. On the south and west elevations headers are raised beneath the windows and around the main corner entrance. On the rear elevations headers are raised in an overall diamond pattern. A row of soldiers three courses above the foundation encircles the entire building. In the gables the bricks are laid in a free form pattern of headers, stretchers, soldiers, diagonals and odd pieces.
Statement of significance
architect: Harvey Baily Alden BUILDER/ARCHITECT builder: Joseph Nickerson The brick block is significant as a unique and interesting example of masonry construction and as an important local landmark. It was originally commissioned by a group of local, businessmen called the Chatham Associates to house their shops on the ground floor with apartments above and it still serves this purpose. Members of the Associates included Benjamin Hyde, Charles Hardy and George Hopkins. Shops included an ice cream parlor, a meat market, and a billiard parlor. It was designed by Harvey Bailey Alden of Boston and construction was supervised by William Cox. Joseph Nickerson, a Worcester native,was imported to act as master mason on the job.
Nickerson, who had competed in national bricklaying competitions, was given a freehand here and the result was a virtuoso example of the bricklayers' art. After completion of the job Nickerson remained in Chatham and his descendants still carry on his craft. The building derives its historic name from the fact that it originally housed the Chatham Post Office.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 79000323, 18 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
.jpeg)
