Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1982. 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 Howard Block is a historic commercial building at 93-97 Main Street in Brockton, Massachusetts. Built in 1876, it forms, an important nexus of commercial development of the post-Civil War era in Brockton.”
Wikipedia article Howard Block (Brockton, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.
National Register reference number.82004969- 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.
The history of Brockton has been written, and is at last presented to the public, after an unexpected amount of labor. There is no. locality in New England which has undergone more rapid changes than this. In ISOO the auth(ir wrote an extended histor)' of the town of North Bridgewater, which has long since gone out of print, containing then about six thousand inhabitants. The rapid growth of the town, the change (jf name t(j Brockton, and afterwards its incorporation into a city, rendered the necessity for a new and enlarged naiTative work under the distinctive name of Brockton. The work has been subject to unavoidable delay owing to the extra amount of work in its preparation, and it is submitted to the citizens of Brockton and vicinity, with all its imperfections, with the hope that it may not be disappointing to those who are interested in and have by their encouragement and generous subscriptions been the means of its publication. Of the importance of works of this class, we may be pardoned for quoting from an eminent writer on kindred works: *
The undersigned citizens and legal voters in the town of North Bridgewater, while willing or desirous to change the corporate name of the town, respectfully beg leave to protest against adopting the name of Brockton, and ask to be heard by themselves or counsel thereon.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 428 fires within 5 miles of Howard Block between
2005 and 2020, burning about 181 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
215
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
135
Misuse of fire by a minor
31
Recreation and ceremony
17
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 Howard 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
11 workings within 5 miles of Howard Block: 9 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant.
2 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.
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
5,490 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 1876 Howard Block is located on Main Street in downtown Brockton across the street the City Hall (NR): It is a four story, seven bay wide block constructed of red brick with brownstone lintels and sills which are surmounted by a console bracketed, sheet metal cornice. The brownstone lintels are articulated by incised floral ornaments and the console brackets are highlighted with acanthus decoration. Two elongated brick panels form an additional horizontal element between the top floor windows and the cornice. The use of these materials and motifs is repeated in the adjoining Lyman Block which is stylistically similar to the Howard Block and also erected in 1876. Together, they con- stitute half of the Main Street block between High Street and Legion Parkway.
Granite quoins, which visually delineate the separation of the Howard Block from the Lyman Block, also indicate the existence of a party wall between them. These granite quoins, which are repeated at the other corner of the Howard Block, enframe its facade. Granite columns were originally used on the first floor in conjunction with large, plate glass storefronts. Alterations The facade of the Howard Block remained intact until the 1900's when the owner removed the center bays and replaced them with a woodand glass (pier and spandrel) curtain wall. This type of facade was conventional at that time and was considered more appropriate for the Howard Block's new function as a furniture showroom.
By 1978, when the Howard Block beçame the property of the Brockton Redevelopment Authority, the curtain wall was severely deteriorated and was boarded up and painted turquoise. The first floor granite columns had gradually been replaced by steel columns but the configuration of the storefronts re- mained intact.
(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect Unknown The Howard Block is an excellent example of 19th century conmerical development. Constructed in 1876 by the owners of the prominent furniture and casket manufacturers, Howard, Clark, and Company, it forms in intergral part of the largest and most prominent block of 19th century buildings re- maining in Brockton. With the destruction of the historic Bixby Block/Home Bank Building (former NR) by fire in 1979, this group of buildings has become one of the focal points of the Main Street business district. The building, therefore, meets criteria B and C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Howard Block, with the Lyman Block, was built in 1876 by a group of successful Brockton Furniture manufacturer - Lyman Clark, Rufus Kimbal, E.G.
Rhodes, and W. H, Savage. Together, owned Howard, Clark, and Co., a furniture and casket manufacturing business established in 1827 by Sameul Howard. The building was one of the first speculative real estate developments to come after the CiVil War, a period of great prosperity for Brockton's shoe industry. The furniture business owned by the developers occupied the Lyman Block, while the Howard was leased to other businesses. Standushigcare ohthesy orignat Bropktenorsf und per amied the Bota eated, aith cantain Miles Massasoit in 1645 for an assortment of hatchets, hoes, knives, and moose skins. The family became one of the biggest landowners in the area, and were later prominent in the shoe industry. It is not clear for which Howard the building was named. W.P.
Howard, founder of Howard, Clark, and Company, died in 1859, nearly 20 years before his successors constructed the Howard Block. Iwo other Howards, however, were certainly influential in the development of the building, even though they may not have been owners. H.H. Howard and Sewall P.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82004969, 27 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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