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Photograph of Ned Point Light
Photograph by Schlitzer90, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Ned Point Light

Built in 1838. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. 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

“Ned Point Light is a historic lighthouse on Ned's Point Road in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. The lighthouse was built in 1838 at a cost of approximately $5,000, and named after Ned Dexter, a local farmer.”

Wikipedia article Ned Point Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1987 · category: Structure · built in 1838 · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 structuress as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Ned Point Rd., Mattpoisett, 02739
  • When was it listed? 1987-06-15
  • Category. structure
  • Also known as. Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
  • Township. Mattapoisett town
  • When was it built? 1838
  • National Register reference number. 87001488 - 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 ground it stands on

13,037 words

This property stands in Mattapoisett Town. Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : Being a History of These Towns and Also in Part of Marion and a Portion of Wareham, published 1907; An Account of the Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, published 1908 gives that township a chapter of its own.

The chapter covers the township.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Mattapoisett Town - 13,037 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

20 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Ned Point Light between 2015 and 2020, burning about 6 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
Debris and open burning10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
1 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
3 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
26 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
10 June 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARION
4 May 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARION
2 May 2017Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 May 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMATTAPOISETT
6 April 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 3,614 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,614 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ned Point Light between 1791 and 1975: 1,681 Animalia, 934 Plantae, 810 Fungi, 150 Chromista, 33 Bacteria, 6 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Mathieson, 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.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
A photograph of the species Drosera filiformis, not of this specimenDrosera filiformis var. filiformis1791not recorded
A photograph of the species Gamochaeta purpurea, not of this specimenGamochaeta purpurea (L.) Cabrera1824T. A. Greene
A photograph of the species Lythrum salicaria, not of this specimenLythrum salicaria L.1831T. A. Greene
A photograph of the species Mentha aquatica, not of this specimenMentha aquatica L.1831Collector unknownNew Bedford. [Inferred county from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Trypethelium virens, not of this specimenTrypethelium virens Tuck.1848ex herb. OakesNew Bedford.
A photograph of the species Endocarpon pusillum, not of this specimenEndocarpon pusillum Hedw.1858H. WilleyFort Phoenix. Fairhaven.
A photograph of the species Chilomycterus geometricus, not of this specimenChilomycterus geometricus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)1860unknownBuzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Menegazzia terebrata, not of this specimenMenegazzia terebrata (Hoffm.) A.Massal.1860H. WilleyNew Bedford
A photograph of the species Abrothallus parmeliarum, not of this specimenAbrothallus parmeliarum (Sommerf.) Nyl., 18691862Willey H.Weymouth, New Bedford
Agapostemon sericeus (Förster, 1771)1899William WheelerNew Bedford
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1899B. Bean & V. EdwardsMassachusetts, Buzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Aluterus schoepfii, not of this specimenAluterus schoepfii (Walbaum, 1792)1899not recordedWest Falmouth, Massachusetts

All 3,614 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Ned Point Light: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Albert WintersSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Wareham PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Map coverage status

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

1,440 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.

The whole case file for this property - 1,440 words, 12 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 87001488, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.

Listed places nearby

3 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Third Meetinghouse2.7 miles1976
Bird Island Light3.1 miles1987
Reed, H.R., House3.4 miles2019

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 87001488 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Plymouth CountyAll 93 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • 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.