Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Ellis, Moses, House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1983. 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
“Twenty-live years ago South Kraminghaui liad already shown signs of an ambition to be something more than the unjiretentious farming village of earlier days. 'I'hus more than ten years before the war the village bad become a point of some size on the railroad mai) of the State. lUit it was destined to become at an early day one of the greatest of New England railroad centres.”
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 1983 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.83004022- 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.
May 22, 1701. The town "voted to give a call to Mr. John Swift to abide and settle with us, the inhabitants of Framingham, as our legal minister." Chose Abial l^amb, David Rice, Benjamin Bridges, John Town, John Haven, Peter Cloyce, Sen., Samuel Winch and Thomas Drury to give the call in behalf of the inhabitants.
As a result of the contest about the ministerial land, growing out of the claim and seizure of said lands by the lessee of Mr. Danforth, a divided sentiment had obtained in the church, aggravated by difficulties with the first pastor. The settlement of a new minister was the occasion of the culmination of the alienated feeling. The majority was uncompromising, and the minority seceded and took steps which led to the organization of a .second Congregational Church in October, 174G. A small meeting-house was built, and Mr. Solomon Reed was ordained pastor of the new church in January, 1747. The new organization numbered over eighty members, and maintained a separate existence about ten years, when a part returned to the old church and a part united in forming the Fir.st Baptist Society in Framingham.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 150 fires within 5 miles of Ellis, Moses, House between
1995 and 2020, burning about 121 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 9 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
57
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
46
Recreation and ceremony
16
Arson/incendiarism
9
Smoking
6
Equipment and vehicle use
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
Other causes
1
Fireworks
1
Natural
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 1,084 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Ellis, Moses, House between 1898 and
1975: 836 Animalia, 176 Plantae, 69 Fungi, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. F. Newton, A. L. Bosworth 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 Ellis, Moses, House: 8 past producers, 2 plants, 1 unknown.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, 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
Framingham, the town this property stands in, in 30 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 10 thunderstorm wind, 9 flood, 6 hail, 2 lightning.
The reports record 1 injury. 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 limbs were downed by thunderstorm winds on the south side of Framingham. A tree fell on a person on Beaver Street. The person sustained minor injuries.
Pearl, Sanger, Waverly, Beech, Henry and Thompson Streets and Union Avenue were all flooded and impassable. Cars were stuck in flood waters on Union Avenue. Waverly Street was closed near Marble Street where several cars were stuck. Cars were stuck in flood waters on Route 9, Union Avenue, Beech Street, and Henry Street. The intersection of Bishop Street and Lawrence Street was closed. Several cars were stuck in flood waters. Parts of Route 9 were flooded with four to five feet of water.
Another round of heavy rain resulted in renewed flooding across Wellesley and Natick. Information on flooding in Wellesley can be found in a similar report for Norfolk County. In Natick, a car became stuck in flood waters on South Main Street. Flooding occurred under the Willow Bridge. Route 9 near the Natick Police Department, Pearl Street, and Plain Streets were all flooded and impassable.
Route 9 was flooded in both directions at Route 126, making Route 9 impassable. Speen Street at Cochituate Road was also flooded with a car stuck in the flood waters there.
In Framingham, Rt 9 (Worcester Rd) at Rt 126, as well as the ramps on Rt 126 were closed due to flooding. A car was stuck at this intersection. Also, Gates St at Parker Rd was impassable.
Thunderstorms produced weak wet microbursts across the Southern portion of Middlesex County on the afternoon on the 29th. Trees were downed in Framingham where a tree split a car in half. Trees were also downed in Sherborn and Ashland which resulted in power outages.
Numerous wires and trees down in Framingham...especially the south side of town. Lightning caused a fire resulting in extensive damage to a home. Additionally, there were unconfirmed funnel cloud sightings this evening in Arlington Heights, Concord and Stoneham and in all of Boston's north and northwest suburbs. There were numerous reports of pea- to marble-size hail from southeast Middlesex and southern Essex Counties between 1744 EST and approximately 1945 EST, mainly from the northwest to northeast of Boston. Lightning caused numerous power outages and fires but were unable to be detailed due to unknown times and lack of detailed data. Torrential rains fell in parts of Boston's northern suburbs near Route 128.
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
2,715 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 Moses Ellis House faces south on Pleasant Street in central Framingham just northwest of the town's commercial/civic area (Irving Square Historic District and Concord Square Historic District; National Register 1982 & 1983). Pleasant Street probably served as a native trail and certainly acted as an important route in the 17th and 18th centuries. The house itself is slightly elevated on a treed 2.3 acre lot. The Moses Ellis House was designed in 1866 in the academic Italianate style by prominent local architect Alexander Rice Esty. It is square in plan with a projecting central entry pavillion and porte-cochere; to the rear it is extended by an ell. Resting on a full granite basement, the house rises two stories to a low hipped roof.
The exterior is sheathed in clapboard with moldedbeltcourses demarcating a watertable and the division between first and second stories. Major decorative elements include boldly scaled window pediments, the arched and paneled porte-cochere, a wide frieze lit by small windows and pediments breaking through the orverhanging cornice on the facade and side elevations. Windows, unless otherwise specified, contain original 6/6 double hung sash. The exterior siding and trim all appear to be original. The three bay facade is symmetrically organized around a projecting entry pvaillion which breaks through the roof in a triangular pediment.
A one story porte-cochere extending out from the pavillion is supported by squared, paneled columns and has flat topped arches at its sides and screening the entry, and a semi-circular arch on the front; all arches are molded and accented with keystones. The recessed entry is surmounted by an elipitical fan. The pavillion contains single windows at each story on its side elevations and is also flanked by single windows on the main body of the house.
/Architect Alexander Rice Esty Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Moses Ellis House possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and workmanship as well as association with several locally prominent people. Designed C.1866 it also embodies the distinctive characteristics of the academic Italiante style as applied to a wood frame residence. Thus it meets criteria B and C of the National Register of Historic Places. Moses Ellis was a wealthy Boston and San Francisco merchant turned gentleman farmer. Born in Dedham, he moved to California in 1850. His activities there are unclear at prèsent, but it appears that he spent most of his time in San Francisco and perhaps accumulated his fortune there.
He returned to New England in 1866, settling in Framingham where he remained one of the town's wealthiest man until his death in 1910. Upon arrival in Framingham, Ellis purchased the 200 acre Buckminster Homestead at auction. He immediately demolished the 1768 house which had also served as a tavern and built the present house shortly thereafter (appears on 1871 map). Ellis chose local architect Alexander Rice Esty to design his new house, perhaps upon the advise of his friend George Weeks who had employed Esty for his house in 1865. Alexander Rice Esty (b.1826, d.1881) is perhaps best known for his public works. Esty - began his career by drawing the buildings around Framingham Center Common. He was app- renticed to Richard Bond of Boston and later worked in the office of Gridley J.F.
Bryant. He opened his own practice in the early 1850's. He was a leading church architect in the 1850's and 1860's; he was responsible for the widest use of the Upjohn Church type in the Boston area.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 83004022, 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.
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