Built in 1883 (Victorian architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. 18 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1887.
From the record
One of 686 National Register listings published here for Worcester County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · built in 1883, Victorian architecture.
National Register reference number.88000711- 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.
From this time until 1812 the usual order of afl'airs prevailed. Under the pastorate of Dr. Thompson the church was prosperous and the number of members and attendants had increased. Nearly all the people had been united in one parish, holding to the prevailing theological (Congregational) belief of the day. In the east part of the town a few of the more prominent men had banded together to uphold and promote the Baptist scheme, and a number withdrew from the church here to unite with those of the eastern section ; in the south part, in 1820, a few had organized and formed aUniversalist society, attracting to themselves other attendants of the original church. One reason assigned by those of the Baptist persuasion for their withdrawal was the excessive taxes that were assessed for the ministerial support. As at this time the town was legally a whole and united parish, and all were liable to be assessed for the support of the one church, their method of withdrawal was somewhat unique. A committee of the church which they desired to attend certified to the town clerk this fact, the usuil form of certificate being as follows : " We certify that A. B. of the town of Barre is a member of the religious society of the town of Barre called Baptist (or Universalist, as the case might be) and doth associate with them in public worship." This, signed by the church committee and entered upon the town records, was presumed and tacitly acknowledged as a release from their obligations in aiding to support and maintain the original church.
With other forms of belief, and with a more liberal as well as with a closer construction of the doctrines set forth, bitter controversies became prevalent. The church in the centre of the town adopted the liberal scheme, but many refused to adhere to this party, and, as was to be foreseen, could not act in harmony with them. They withdrew, and Augu-it 15, 1827, were organized by an ecclesiastical council, called for that purpose, as the Evangelical Congregational Chuich in Barre. Aside from the friction of a separation, harmony between these two organizations was somewhat interrupted, but the discords were afterwards allayed and a friendly rivalry sprang up between them.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 54 fires within 5 miles of No. 4 Schoolhouse
between 2015 and 2018, burning about 44 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
28
Recreation and ceremony
11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
10
Smoking
2
Arson/incendiarism
2
Misuse of fire by a minor
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 1,585 specimens
collected within 10 miles of No. 4 Schoolhouse between 1839 and 1975: 814 Animalia, 459 Fungi, 288 Plantae, 15 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. V. Schott, A. J. Stone, A. Melander 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
6 workings within 5 miles of No. 4 Schoolhouse: 5 past producers, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Sulfur. 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
Barre, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2021: 7 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 3 lightning, 1 flash 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.
Lightning struck a home on Grogan Road, causing a fire that resulted in damage to a large bedroom, as well as knocking out the electricity and phone service to the house.
1 paper published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
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
Ceriying oficial has considared the signitican de br this propery inaerac, Mostar brerites nationally [x]locally Applicable National Register Criteria B Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Education Architecture D -G PiioditSgniicance Significant Dates Cultyral Affiiation Signiticant Pers0/A Archimes ildPotter State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. No. 4 Schoolhouse, Barre, a late nineteenth-century, one-room school, retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and association.
The only intact, surviving district school of seventeen built in Barre, the structure served elementary-age children of northeast Barre from 1883 to 1930, and since 1937 has functioned as a civic center for the No. 4 Community Club. The No. 4 School represents an unusually well-preserved example of the type of schoolhouse associated with district educational systems of nineteenth century rural Massachusetts communities. As such, it fulfills Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. The lands which later became the town of Barre made up the northwestern section of the twelve-mile-square "Naquage" lands, nominally purchased from native Americans in 1686, and incorporated as the town of Rutland in 1714.
Settlers began to arrive in the northwestern lands of Rutland by ca. 1720. By 1748, Rutland's Northwest Quarter had thirty families in residence, and in 1753 it was established as Rutland District. By 1764, Rutland District had a population of over 700, and the first school house was built, near the 1753 meetinghouse. In 1774, Rutland District was incorporated as the town of Hutchinson, renamed Barre in 1776. Located on a highland plateau of central Massachusetts, the new town contained a good portion of high-yielding, readily cultivated soil, and once the lands were cleared of forest, the local agricultural economy prospered.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 88000711, 20 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.
Block
