Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1980. 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 Hill School is a historic school building at 4 Middle Street in the Padanaram village of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The two-story wood-frame structure was built c. 1806, and was established by the area's early settlers as a cooperative venture.”
Wikipedia article Hill School (South Dartmouth, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
National Register reference number.80000432- 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.
North Dartmouth and Smith's Mills within recent years had been having a building boom of new residences, and are numbered among the progressive sections of the town. All that portion north of Allen street has been placed in No. 3 fire district, with the purchase and location there of a new combination Maxim fire engine. South Dartmouth includes Padanaram, Bliss Corner and Smith's Neck, mostly the summer resort part of the town, where are located the town hall, the central library, the high school, and the New Bedford Yacht Club. Russell's Mills is residence of many Quaker descendants, and the location of the old Friends' meetinghouse. It was from that meetinghouse and its group of Friends that one of the principal scenes in the play "Down to the Sea in Ships" was obtained. The town has excellent fire and police service. J. W. Baxter is first chief of police. Benjamin J. Potter, town clerk and treasurer for thirty-two years, died in September, 1923.
The establishment of the Congregational church in this town was brought about in 1807, with Rev. Daniel Emerson as the first pastor, the church edifice being built in 1817. A South Dartmouth Baptist church, now closed, was formed in May, 1831, as a branch of the New Bedford Baptist Church. Yet another church formed in 1836, the Second Christian Church, is not active at this time. The Methodist Episcopal church, organized in 1838, has declined in interest and membership. The Smith Mills Christian Church was formed December 22, 1838, the house being built just previously. The Christian Church in the Bakerville district was built in 1837, the organization taking place in 1838.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Hill School between
2015 and 2020, burning about 13 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
13
Debris and open burning
6
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Arson/incendiarism
1
Fireworks
1
Recreation and ceremony
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 2,660 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Hill School between 1824 and
1975: 978 Animalia, 897 Plantae, 554 Fungi, 195 Chromista, 30 Bacteria, 6 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Seymour, A. Clark 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
5 workings within 5 miles of Hill School: 4 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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
South Dartmouth, the town this property stands in, in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2021: 3 flash flood, 3 flood, 2 hail, 2 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 New Bedford, West Rodney French Boulevard, Cove, Roosevelt, Orchard, Fair, Purchase, Weld, Penniman, and Allen Streets, and Rockdale Avenue were all flooded with 6 to 12 inches of water. Belleville Avenue between Hatch and Covell Streets was flooded with three feet of water. Cars were backed up on Route 18 at the Weld Street offramp due to flooding on the ramp. Basements were flooded on several streets. A manhole cover was blown off by flooding on Acushnet Avenue. The Coggeshall Street onramp to Interstate 195 westbound was flooded and impassable. A funeral home car was stuck in two feet of water on Dartmouth Street. In Fairhaven, the intersection of Washington and Adams Streets was flooded.
Over an inch of rain fell in 30 minutes in New Bedford, resulting in widespread flash flooding. Numerous streets were flooded, including: Coffin Avenue near Purchase Street, Purchase and Dean Streets, Purchase and Coggeshall Streets, Dean and Purchase Streets, Cove Road near the hurricane barrier, Sawyer and Purchase Streets, and Belleville Avenue. Several cars were stuck in the flood waters, including at Purchase and Dean Streets. Manhole covers had come off in several locations as well.
Three to five inches of rain fell across Bristol County. A house on Margin Street in New Bedford was flooded with four feet of water. River Road near Wood Street was closed due to flooding.
Damage in Dartmouth was consistent with straight-line winds with maximum gusts estimated at 65 mph. The damage occurred on Sunset lane and adjacent portions of Stoneledge Road to the north and Swift road to the south. Large maple and oak trees were mostly blown down and some large branches were broken off of others.
Lightning struck the Southeast Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association Building resulting in damage some of the equipment, including a 900MHz repeater, and the clubs internet and phone service.
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.
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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