Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Murdock School
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1988. 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 churches sent to, and that were represented in this Council, were the First Congregational church in Royal- Bton, the Congregational church in Rindge, N. H. the Congregational church in Templeton, and the First Con- gregational church in Winchendon : Rev.”
History of the Town of Winchendon, from the Grant of the Township by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1735, to the Present Time (1849). Machine-read text.
one of 500 National Register listings in Worcester County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Worcester County.
National Register reference number.87002562- 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.
Be it enacted by the Governor, Council and House of Representatives, That the Plantation commonly called and known by the name of Ipswich Canada, in the County of Worcester, bounded as follows, viz : South twelve degrees west, seven miles and two hundred rods on Dorchester Canada ; west eighteen degrees south, two hundred and seventy rods on Westminster ; north thirty-six degrees west, four miles and two hundred and twenty rods on Ten.* pleton line ; north seventy-eight degrees west, six hundred rods on Templeton line ; north twelve degrees east, four miles and two hundred and sixty rods on Royalshire ; south seventy-eight degrees west,* six miles on Royalshire line ; be and hereby is erected into a Town, by the name of Winchendon : and that the inhabitants thereof be, and hereby are invested with all the powers, privileges and immunities, which the inhabitants of the towns within the province do or may enjoy.
Extracts from the records. At a meeting legally warned of the free holders and other inhabitants of Winchendon to assemble at the public meeting house in said town on Monday the 1 1th day of March, 1765. Then and there, being assembled, proceeded in the following manner, viz.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Murdock School between
2012 and 2020, burning about 10 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 burning
6
Recreation and ceremony
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
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 410 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Murdock School between 1870 and
1973: 213 Plantae, 139 Animalia, 57 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A., A. F. Newton, A. J. Stone 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
7 workings within 5 miles of Murdock School: 5 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Mica, Feldspar, Mica, Feldspar. 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
Winchendon, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 lightning.
The reports record 2 deaths. 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.
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
5,669 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.
Statement of significance
Murdock School, Winchendon, MA Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally statewide LX locally XA B JA Dc D Applicable National Register Criteria Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Education UF LG Period of Significance 1887-1937 Significant Dates Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder Henry M. Francis Henry G. Morse State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Murdock School retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, teeling, workmanship, and association and meets National Register criteria A and C on the local level.
The burlding holds associations with the development of Winchendon's educational system, with the Murdock family, which tor two generations remained among the most prosperous, public spirited, and philanthropic of the town's earliest entrepreneurs, and most specifically, with Ephraim Murdock, Jr., an industrialst and real estate magnate whose will created a trust for the construction and endowment of the school. Executed in the Romanesque Revival style by H. M. Francis of Fitchburg, a leading architect in North Worcester County, the well-preserved Murdock School is also the most high style of Winchendon's school buildings. Ephraim Murdock, Jr. (1800-1882), was the grandson of Deborah Williams Murdock (d. 1809) and James Murdock (1738-1813), who moved to Winchendon in 1766.
He was the oldest son of Zebiah Bixby Murdock (d. 1824) and Ephraim Murdock (1772-1853), a housewright and operator of both sleigh and blacksmith shops. Ephraim Murdock, Sr., Amasa Whitney (the owner of several mills, the most important of which was a textile factory), and Isaac Morse, who ran a tannery, currier shop and Winchendon's first hotel, were the principal businessmen in town during the early nineteenth century.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 87002562, 27 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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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