Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Melrose Public Library
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
“William Frederick Poole, A.M., LL.D., the eminent librarian and bibliophile, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, December 21, 1821. While in Yale College he became assistant librarian, which was the beginning of a life-long profession.”
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 1988 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.88000909- 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.
Melrose contains a superficial area of about 2,900 square acres, 2,7;iO of which are taxable. It is two and one eighth miles in length, and has an average width of two miles. It is bounded on the north by Wakefield, on the east by Saugus, on the south by Maiden, and on the west by Stoneham and a corner of Medford. It has four villages : Wyoming, at the south part of the town ; tiie Centre ; the Highlands, at the north ; and Norrisville, in the northeastern part. Its surface is charmhigly diversified with hill, valley, pond, and stream. From the summits of a number of its elevations - particularly Boston Rock in the south, Barrett's Mount in the centre, and West Rock, or Vinton Hill, in the north - extensive views of the surrounding country and of the ocean may be had. L Pond, situated in the centre of the town, so named from its shape, contains about thirty acres, and upon its borders are many of the finest residences. This pond received its name as early as 1638, nine years after the settlement of Charlestown, in whose records it is then mentioned ; and it was so called in manv other earlv documents.
It is often spelled "Ell," an undoubted misapprehension from its sound. It has recently been stocked with black bass and alewives by a fishing association under the protection of state law. Long Pond, in the eastern portion of the town, part of which is in Melrose and part in Saugus, is the source of the Saugus River. This and Swain's Pond, in the southeastern part of the town, were named as early as 1660, being then referred to in the Charlestown records. Dix, formerly Little, Pond, near the centre, is small, but it is the legendary pond of Melrose, rumor giving it a fathomless bottom from time immemorial.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 92 fires within 5 miles of Melrose Public Library between
2004 and 2020, burning about 107 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
24
Debris and open burning
14
Recreation and ceremony
14
Smoking
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
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 1,260 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Melrose Public Library between 1898 and
1975: 487 Animalia, 445 Plantae, 279 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 15 Protozoa, 9 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded. 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
12 workings within 5 miles of Melrose Public Library: 4 plants, 4 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica, Copper, Lead, 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
Melrose, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2012 and 2020: 2 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind.
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 Wakefield, trees were down on Avon St and Green St. A tree was down on a house on Main St. near the lake. Myrtle Ave was blocked by 5 large trees downed. A tree was down on Commuter Rail train tracks.
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.
Named in the fire insurance atlases
Sanborn surveyors printed an index of the
town's establishments at the front of each atlas. This property is named in
one, read straight off the scanned 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
Melrose Public Library, Melrose, Massachusetts Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally statewide Xlocally Applicable National Register Criteria A Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Community Planning and Development Architecture 1904 -1930cance 1904 Significant Dates Su/tural Affiliation Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder Penn Varney State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above.
The Melrose Public Library, located within a block of Main Street, is important for its association with the development of the City of Melrose and for its representation of a neoclassical civic building, a popular building form at the turn of the century. The Melrose Public Library was constructed in 1904 and rapidly increased its collections and its rate of circulation, until 1930, when additional space was needed. A major addition was also constructed in 1963. The Melrose Public Library retains integrity of location, design, setting, material, feeling, workmanship, and association and is significant for Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level.
The first settlement within present city boundaries occurred as early as 1650 when Melrose was part of Malden, an adjacent city. Despite this early settlement date, there was only sparse activity until the early 1800s. primary transportation and development route was on a north-south axis along what continues to be Main Street. The town was incorporated in 1850. In the early 1800s, the agricultural economy was supplemented by shoemaking, which became the only significant industry for Melrose with the 1883-1884 construction of the Boston Rubber Shoe Company. With the arrival of the railroad, in 1845, came a wave of suburban residential late 1800s, the expansion of the streetcar routes along Main Street and the continued development.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 88000909, 27 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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