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 Tolman-Gay House is a historic house at 1196 Central Avenue in Needham, Massachusetts. Built in 1743, it is a well-preserved example of mid-18th century architecture, which was occupied for nearly two centuries by members of two of Needham's early families.”
Wikipedia article Tolman-Gay 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.82004419- 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 131 fires within 5 miles of Tolman-Gay House
between 2003 and 2020, burning about 390 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
67
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
45
Smoking
8
Debris and open burning
7
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 15,993 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Tolman-Gay House between 1805 and 1975: 6,559 Animalia, 4,819 Plantae, 4,157 Fungi, 205 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 Tolman-Gay 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 Tolman-Gay House stands on 1ts original site, a high point of land on the easterly side of Central Avenue, about 3/4 of a mile south of the original town center. Surrounded by spacious lawns, gardens and shade trees, it is part of a residential neighborhood which has grown up around it within this century. Now expanded, it was constructed in 1743 as a two story, wood frame dwelling with an L-shaped plan. It had a three bay facade (west) and a rear kitchen ell (northwest). The original fieldstone foundation remaining under this portion, measures 25' on the west by 30' on the north (see sketch). It is believed that this house was enclosed by inter- secting gable roofs with a single chimey (which remains today) rising from the intersection.
Today, the Tolman-Gay House retains much of its original interior and exterior building fabric; the primary alteration to the structure has been the extension of the rear ell by two bays sometime atter construction, and by a porch and garage, c. 1930. In addition, its gable roofs have been replaced by hip roots. The three bay facade (west) contains windows in the two northerly bays and the entry in the south bay; windows are located above all three openings at the second story. These windows, along with the rest in the original house, measure 27 1/2" X 45"' and consist of 6/6 double hung sash with simple frames. The two stories are separated by a slight overhang. The north elevation consists of two parts: the westerly end dating trom 1/43, and the easterly end from 1930.
The westerly end is enclosed by a hip roof and exhibits a slight overhang separating the stories.
(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect _ landscape architecture law literature X military music philosophy -politics/government - religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Nathaniel Tolman The Tolman-Gay House possess integrity of location, design, materials and workmanship as well as associations with the development of Needham since the mid-eighteenth century. It 15 Important because of its location near the original town center, because its primary occupants, the Tolmans and the Gays, were active in the military and governmental affairs of the town, and because it retains its original design features which reflect its long history. Thus the Tolman-Gay House meets criteria A, B and C of the National Register of Historic Places.
provision: ana the chimney under the same, with the liberty to pass and repass from said east end the barn easterly of the floorway, viz. -the northwardly half with a common use of the floorway and convenient yard room by said barn with liberty to pass and repass from said barn to the same." The barn is long gone, but the division of the house can The name of John Tolman first appears in town records as one of the builders of the Second Meeting House in 1774, where he is identified as a "housewright" or carpenter. It is unknown if Nathaniel was also a carpenter. On the morning of April 19, 1775, at the age of eighteen, John Tolman marched with the East Militia Company of Needham to the Lexington Alarm.
On the afternoon of that day he received a musket ball in the chest at Menotomy, now Arlington, Massachusetts, where the Needham company were harassing the British troops in their retreat from Lexington and Concord. One of his companions on that day was Jonathan Gay, whose son Jonathan Gay, Jr.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82004419, 17 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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