Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 18 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
From the record
“The Goldthwaite Block is a historic commercial building on 99-103 Main Street in Brockton, Massachusetts. Built in 1892, it forms part of one of the city's best-preserved assemblages of 19th-century commercial architecture, alongside the Lyman Block and Howard Block.”
Wikipedia article Goldthwaite Block, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 138 National Register listings published here for Plymouth County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.82004427- 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.
TJniversalist Society. - Since the settlement of Rev. Mr. Surt, in 1864, the pulpit of the Universalists of Brockton has had a varied experience, and the supply been somewhat irregular. Rev. Stephen L. Rorapaugh was pastor from May, 1864, to Dec. 16, 1806, when he resigned, though he continued preaching till March 24, 1867. The next pastor was the Rev. Isaac M. Atwood, from May, 1807, to 1872. Rev. S. S. Hcbard, April, 1872.
Several changes took place in the affairs of the society from 1872 to 1877. About that time Rev. Samuel L. Beal removed to Brockton from Provincetown, and gathered a new organization of members of the disbanded society, and preached in the old Universalist Church, which was then unoccupied, where he remained for a few months, and then removed to the Grand Army Hall, East Elm Street, where he remained for two to three years. His first great effort was to organize a Sunday-school, which he did on the 5th day of June, 1877. In 1880 this society removed to Cunningham Hall, formerly the old Universalist Church, where he continued for about three years. On the 9th of November, 1880, a new and legal organization of the society took place, under the name of New Universalist Society. The success uf the society has been largely through the efforts and labors of Rev. Mr. Beal, who had gatliercd au assembly representing nearly one hundred families, and a Sunday-school having a library of about one thousand volumes. Mr. Beal was an active and earnest man in the pulpit. He was also deeply interested in temperance and other reforms in the city, and labored vigorously with tongue and pen to check the tide of intemperance and vice, and often with telling effect. Mr. Beal did faithful service on the school committee in 1882. Rev. Mr. Beal retired from the service of this church in August, 1883.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 444 fires within 5 miles of Goldthwaite Block
between 2005 and 2020, burning about 188 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 8 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
Debris and open burning
218
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
137
Misuse of fire by a minor
31
Recreation and ceremony
28
Smoking
16
Arson/incendiarism
8
Natural
5
Fireworks
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 783 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Goldthwaite Block between 1857 and 1975: 432 Plantae, 216 Fungi, 132 Animalia, 1 Chromista, 1 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. A. Eaton, 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
12 workings within 5 miles of Goldthwaite Block: 9 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Brockton, the town this property stands in, in 26 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 heavy rain, 3 lightning.
The reports record 60 injuries. 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.
Numerous trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds throughout Brockton. This includes trees and wires on Warren Avenue in front of the Boys and Girls Club, near the high school, on Route 14, on French and Perkins Avenues, and on Ash Street. One of these trees fell on a dentists office on South Street in the Campello neighborhood.
A line of thunderstorms moved across parts of central and eastern Massachusetts with wind gusts to 40 to 50 mph. In Lowell, two children received minor injuries when a tree fell on them after it was uprooted by winds gusting to an estimated 50 mph. In Southboro, large tree limbs were downed. In Swampscott, a tree fell on an automobile. In Belmont, Cambridge, and Watertown, tree limbs and a few power lines were reported blown down. In Brockton, two large tree limbs were knocked down. In downtown Boston, a street sign was blown down and hit a man on the head.
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 four story Goldthwaite Building is located on Main Street in downtown Brockton, across from the City Ha11 (NR). It is surrounded by three other late nineteenth century build- ings of similar scale. The 1892 structure is the most ornamental of the group, being faced with yellow Roman brick and red terra-cotta. The three upper floors of the facade are divided into three bays by masonry piers with terra-cotta capitals. The center bay contains paired 1/1 sash at each floor. Those of the top floor have arched heads and are set within the elaborate typanum of a larger arch.
p ne diyae the Toker Boreh, tha Terra-cotta spandrels divide the lower floors; that dividing the third and fourth floors is imprinted with the words "GOLDTHWAITE BLOCK" while that dividing the second and third floors reads "ANNO DOMINI - 1892". The outer bays contain wood framed, copper clad oriels with three windows at each floor. The spandrels dividing each floor are embossed with a foliate pattern. The enframing. pilasters carry a terra-cotta freize. While the upper floors remain today in their original state, the street level storefronts have been alteredmany times. As originally designed, two stores flanked a center bay through which one gained access to the upper floors.
Some time in the early twentieth century, the first floor was converted to a single store with the entry to the upper floors shifted to one side. In 1979, the building was converted to use as elderly housing, and a three bay storefront was replaced which is similar in design to the origina..
Statement of significance
/Architect J. Westwood religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Goldthwaite Block possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship and, as a major local example of Victorian commercial design, meets criterion It is significant both for the quality of its architectural detail and as an integral part of the largest and most prominent group of unaltered 19th century bulldings remain- ing in Brockton. In materials and detail, it echoes the landmark Brockton City Hall (1883, NR), which is visible across Main Street. The Goldthwaite Block was built in 1892 by Charles Herbert Goldthwaite to house the "apothecary" established in 1867 by his uncle, Emerson Goldthwaite.
The younger Gold- thwaite was born in Stoughton, MA, 1n 1861, and was taken in by his uncle atter the death of his tather, a leather cutter, in 1883. At that time, Emerson Goldthwaite operated a : dry goods store with "drugs, medicines, books, and stationery" in a wood frame building on the site of the present structure. Emerson sent his nephew to the Boston School of Pharmacy 1n 1883, and when he graduated in 1884, the Goldthwaites established Brockton's first "drug store. " Emerson soon retired, opening a small loan oftice across the street in the Bixby Building. By 1980, "C.H. Goldthwaite, Druggist" was in business by himself. The relative architectural opulence of the Goldthwaite Block indicates that Goldthwaite was a successful merchant who could afford to build a local landmark.
The building is one of the few contemporaneous buildings for which the architect's name was recorded. Goldthwaite employed a Scotsman named J. Westwood, who came to Brockton in 1890 to practice architecture.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82004427, 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.
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