Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Beebe Estate
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1981. 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
“William Frederick Poole, A.M., LL.D., the eminent librarian and bibliophile, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, December 21, 1821. While in Yale College he became assistant librarian, which was the beginning of a life-long profession.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men (1890). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1981 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.81000116- 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.
Melrose contains a superficial area of about 2,900 square acres, 2,7;iO of which are taxable. It is two and one eighth miles in length, and has an average width of two miles. It is bounded on the north by Wakefield, on the east by Saugus, on the south by Maiden, and on the west by Stoneham and a corner of Medford. It has four villages : Wyoming, at the south part of the town ; tiie Centre ; the Highlands, at the north ; and Norrisville, in the northeastern part. Its surface is charmhigly diversified with hill, valley, pond, and stream. From the summits of a number of its elevations - particularly Boston Rock in the south, Barrett's Mount in the centre, and West Rock, or Vinton Hill, in the north - extensive views of the surrounding country and of the ocean may be had. L Pond, situated in the centre of the town, so named from its shape, contains about thirty acres, and upon its borders are many of the finest residences. This pond received its name as early as 1638, nine years after the settlement of Charlestown, in whose records it is then mentioned ; and it was so called in manv other earlv documents.
It is often spelled "Ell," an undoubted misapprehension from its sound. It has recently been stocked with black bass and alewives by a fishing association under the protection of state law. Long Pond, in the eastern portion of the town, part of which is in Melrose and part in Saugus, is the source of the Saugus River. This and Swain's Pond, in the southeastern part of the town, were named as early as 1660, being then referred to in the Charlestown records. Dix, formerly Little, Pond, near the centre, is small, but it is the legendary pond of Melrose, rumor giving it a fathomless bottom from time immemorial.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 90 fires within 5 miles of Beebe Estate between
2015 and 2020, burning about 107 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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
Arson/incendiarism
28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
24
Recreation and ceremony
14
Debris and open burning
13
Smoking
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Equipment and vehicle use
2
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 1,292 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Beebe Estate between 1898 and
1975: 499 Animalia, 455 Plantae, 289 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 15 Protozoa, 9 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
12 workings within 5 miles of Beebe Estate: 4 plants, 4 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica, Copper, Lead, Peat. 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
Melrose, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2012 and 2020: 2 flood, 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 Wakefield, trees were down on Avon St and Green St. A tree was down on a house on Main St. near the lake. Myrtle Ave was blocked by 5 large trees downed. A tree was down on Commuter Rail train tracks.
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
2,816 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 Beebe House, an early Greek Revival period estate, stands on one and three- quarter acres of land situated at the head of a major intersection in downtown Melrose. The excellently conceived and commanding design of the building takes maximum advantage of its large, open site, being set well back from the property lines on all sides. The large, nearly cubical building is two stories high, sheathed in clapboards, with a high hip roof and tall thin end chimneys paired at either side. The unusual pattern of ornamentation witnesses the transitional nature of the building's period of construction.
The house has a five bay facade with 6 over 6 windows -- taller on the first floor, smaller and close to the eaves on the second floor --and a center door- way- This entrance is emphasized by a sturdy portico with fluted Doric columns, high flat entablature, and pedimented roof. The doorway itself has sidelights (now blocked in) and a glazed transom. Excepting this striking element, the visual focus of the Beebe House is not the facade, with its narrow flat corner boards, fascia, and window surrounds. The eye is drawn first to the portico and then upward to a superbly enriched roofline. A low openwork balustrade with an "X" pattern runs along the base of the roof. An acroteria motif in a scroll and anthemion pattern ornaments the corners and center panel of each side of the balustrade.
The most dominant element, how- - ever, is the central cupola. The large cylinder shape sits on a polygonal base and consists of six fluted Ionic columns supporting an entablature which is delicately embellished with carved wreaths, dentils, anthemion antefix, and a central urn-capped finial. Within this frame is a low balustrade and six 2 over 2 windows.
/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Beebe Estate represents an early achievement in the Greek Revival style. It was built by an internationally prominent merchant as a summer house and was sub- sequently occupied by a number of influential area businessmen. The building thus meets criteria and C of the National Register of Historic Places. In the early nineteenth century Melrose (then North Malden) was a pleasant farming community about seven miles north of Boston. William Foster of Boston was im- pressed by the natural beauty of the area and in 1828 purchased a substantial acreage near the center of town. On this site he built the lovely home now known as the Beebe Estate. Foster (1772-1863) was born into a Boston merchant family.
At an early age he was sent to Europe to act as his father's representative in Spain and France. Foster served in Napoleon's army, participated in many events of the French Revolution, and at one time was president of a branch of the Jacobin Club, a political group which exerted profound influence on the progress of the French Revolution. Of major importance to the American textile industry was Foster's trip back to the United States in 1793, when he smuggled in three Merino sheep--the first ever introduced to this country. This important breed of sheep was valued for its fine wool, and Spain and France prohibited its export in an effort to retain their countries'economic advantage.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 81000116, 15 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
