Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Cowdrey, George, House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1984. 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
“Although nearly half a century had passed since the incorporation of the town, there iiad been a general unanimity of action in its public affairs, but this tranquillity was soon to be disturbed by a foreign foe. The change in the administration of government in the mother country had given rise to feelings of intense anxiety.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County (1880). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1984 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.84002557- 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 happened here
An account from the chapter on Stoneham town, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
> Jarob Pnrker Gould, (i son of Jacob and Pbcbo C, was born >Iiiy 15, 1822, graduated at Norwicli Uuivers'ly, Virmout; was a i-ivil engineer; wns major of the 13lh Regiment XIassacluisetts Voluuteeii; afterwards colonel of the 59th Massachusetts rcginiciit ; wounded nt the battle of Petersburg, Virginia, bod B leg aniputated, and died at Pliiladelphia, July 21.
Anthony Hadley ; a piece of it still retains the name of Spring Pasture. Among tlie first settlers were John Vinton and Jonathan Green, at the southeasterly part of tiie town ; the lands then belonging to John "Vinton, and in later years owned by several of the same name, as well as lands owned by persons by the name of Green, being at the present time included within the limits of the town of Melrose. The house of Jonatliau Green was built about the year 1700, and is still standing on the westerly side of Green Lane. When first occupied, the east part of the house was used for a stable, thereby exhibiting the kindness of the occupant for his horse as well as for the members of his family. Green was a member of the Troop Company, and often went to Groton and vicinity, as that appears to have been a noted place of resort for the destruction of the Indians. Jonathan Green, a descendant in the fifth generation, is still an owner and occupant of the premises. John Gould, Thomas Cutler, and William Rogers are said to have been numbered with the first settlers at the northeasterly part of the town, and although the names of John Gould and William Rogers do not appear in the records of births, marriages, or deaths, the births of Sarah Gould, born August 29, 1706, and Daniel Gould, born June 10, 1709, son and daughter of Daniel and Sarah, are found the first births occurring in Stoneham that are entered upon the records.
Stoneham remained for a long period a part of Charlestown, notwithstanding the early dates of the incorporation of the town of Medford, September 2S, 16:30 ; Woburn, May 18, 1643 ; Reading, May 29, 104-4, and Maiden, May 2, 1649. Stoneham was made a town December 17, 172.5. The following is a part of the act of incorporation : -
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 88 fires within 5 miles of Cowdrey, George, House between
2003 and 2020, burning about 109 acres in total. None started naturally. 29 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
Arson/incendiarism
29
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
16
Recreation and ceremony
16
Debris and open burning
13
Smoking
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
4
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
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 1,250 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Cowdrey, George, House between 1898 and
1975: 514 Animalia, 425 Plantae, 274 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 8 Unrecorded, 7 Protozoa, 5 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
15 workings within 5 miles of Cowdrey, George, House: 7 past producers, 5 producers, 3 plants.
8 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica, 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
Stoneham, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 1995 and 2008: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood.
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.
In Woburn, ten inches of water flowed across Main Street with water pouring out of the manhole covers. In Stoneham, heavy rain resulted in flooding on Maple Street where two cars were submerged; trapping their drivers.
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
1,371 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 reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and 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.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 84002557, 8 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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