Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 19 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
From the record
“The Davis Mills House is a historic house in Needham, Massachusetts. It is wood-frame house, five bays wide, with a side gable roof, two interior chimneys, and clapboard siding.”
Wikipedia article Davis Mills House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 342 National Register listings published here for Norfolk County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.82004418- 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.
What gave the new town the name of Needham is not definitely known, but Rev. Stephen Palmer, who was an authority on the local history of this town, in | a note to an historical address delivered by him in | 1811, says, '' The author has been informed by one of the descendants of the venerable Timothy Dwight, of Dedham, who was a member of the Legislature when this town was incorporated, that it was named | Needham at the request of Governor Dudley after | Needham in England, and because that town is near | to Dedham, although in a different county."
Parker was shot making for the woods. Fisher escaped. Lieut. John Bacon lived in that part of Needham set off to Natick in 1797. Born in 1721; married Abigail Sawin, 1744. They had nine children. Austin Bacon, Esq., a great-grandson of Lieut. Bacon, gives the following interesting account of the cireumstances attending the death of his ancestor: " In the night or near morning the alarm was given, and he set eastern part of the town, and sent his horse back Soon after he had gone a trumpet sounded, and some Framingham men came along with one Nero Benson, a negro, for a trumpeter, and every house they passed had a blast. they heard from him, when one Hawes, they used to call 'Old Hawes,' came home (he was a soldier in the French and Indian war), and gave the following account: That Bacon and himself were on a ledge of rocks in Menotomy behind a stone wall, trying to get a good shot at the red-coats. the flank guard should surprise them, and kept a lookout. Bacon, with his powder in his hat, was lying behind the wall with another, when Hawes said, 'Run or you are dead, here's the side guard.' They tried to get over the wall, but Bacon was shot through near the third button on his vest. receiving the news my grandfather (son of Lieut. Bacon) went off to see how it was, and near night, April 20, came home with his clothes, the body having been buried at West Cambridge. The clothes erandfather entered the room he knew the old striped hat which was put on top of the roll of clothes." Bacon was described as a great worker, and would
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 117 fires within 5 miles of Davis Mills House
between 2003 and 2020, burning about 380 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
65
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
34
Smoking
7
Debris and open burning
7
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Other causes
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 15,562 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Davis Mills House between 1805 and 1975: 6,468 Animalia, 4,633 Plantae, 4,016 Fungi, 192 Protozoa, 169 Chromista, 52 Unrecorded, 32 Bacteria.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, ? ex Herb. W.G. Farlow, A C Gibson 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
8 workings within 5 miles of Davis Mills House: 6 past producers, 1 producer, 1 unknown.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, 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
Needham, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 4 flood, 2 lightning.
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.
Flooding reaching the tops of tires in Needham at the intersection of Great Plain Avenue and Ivy Road. The Canton Street railroad underpass in Sharon was flooded. A section of Village Street in Medway was flooded. The exit ramp from U.S. Route 1 near an auto dealership in Norwood was flooded; Dean Street in Norwood was flooded; two sections of University Avenue in Norwood were flooded. Oak Street at Park Street in Medfield was flooded. Albion Road at Cliff Road in Wellesley was flooded; State Route 9 near the Fire Department Headquarters was flooded.
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 Davis Mills House sits proudly on a three-acre site on a sloping hillside overlooking Needham's old town center, now Townsend Green. Surrounding the house are lawns, fields, and gardens. Iwo unattached buildings -- a barn and a more modern garage -- also stand nearby. The Mills House was built in 1834, and is a good local example of the late Federal style. The wood frame house is 2½ stories high: with a gable roof and five bay facade. Detailing the double cube composition are twin rear wall chimneys, six over six window sash, and a delicate center entrance on the facade. This entry is composed of two slender undecorated pilasters topped with a high, dentillated frieze and projecting cornice, all containing narrow half-height sidelights and a six-panelled door.
Extending west (to the rear) from the main block is the original kitchen ell, 2½ stories high with a gable roof. To this wing was added in 1916 an additional 2½ story ell, which now contains a more modern kitchen and work area. Several unobtrusive changes have been made to these rear wings, among them a bay window, dormer windows, and two secondary entrances. The main block of the house has a parlor on either side of the front door and bedrooms above. One of the most notable interior features is a circular stairway which rises steeply to the second floor. Although somewhat cramped, the use of this motif does add a good deal of style to a "country house," and reflects a sophisticated turn of mind on the part of a country builder.
The Mills House has been well preserved by its successive owners and is in excellent physical condition.
Statement of significance
/Architect Unknown Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Davis Mills House possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship and is important in the history of Needham for several reasons. The Architectural quality of its vernacular design, a visually striking site, and identifica- tion with the locally prominent Mills family over several centuries, meet Criteria B and C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Davis Mills House stands on the easterly slope of North Hill and overlooks the original center of the town. The site was originally reserved as ministerial land and required a series of acts passed by the General Court to release this property for sale.
Members of the Mills family were among the earliest in the area, at one time known as "Mills country." Samuel Mills was a landholder as early as 1674, before the purchase of the land from representatives of the Massachusetts tribe in 1680. Later generations served as surveyors of highways, town incorporators, Minutemen, militiamen, and business- men. Davis Collins Mills (1800-1865), who built this house in 1834, was a sixth-generation descendant of the first Samuel Mills, and proved no exception to the family tradition of civic interest. Davis was the ninth member of his family to serve as selectman and also served as an assessor. At the time this building was constructed, Davis's uncle, two brothers, and a sister also lived in the neighborhood.
Davis Mills was a victualler, or butcher, and he operated a slaughter house in the orignal barn behind his house. His two brothers ran glue shops, and he supplied them with the raw material of their trade.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82004418, 11 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
