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Photograph of New Boston Inn
Photograph by John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

New Boston Inn

Built in 1750 in the Federal architecture. 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 New Boston Inn is a historic inn at 101 North Main Street, the junction of Massachusetts Routes 8 and 57 in the center of the New Boston village of Sandisfield, Massachusetts. With a construction history dating back to c. 1750, it is one of the oldest buildings in the town, and a prominent local example of Federal period architecture.”

Wikipedia article New Boston Inn, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 94 National Register listings in Berkshire County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · built in 1750, Federal architecture · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Berkshire 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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Jct. of MA 8 and MA 57, Sandisfield, 01255
  • When was it listed? 1988-09-01
  • Category. building
  • Township. Sandisfield town
  • When was it built? 1750
  • Architectural style. Federal architecture
  • National Register reference number. 88001459 - 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.

Fires near this property

8 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of New Boston Inn between 2015 and 2019, burning about 26 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 burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Smoking1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
21 July 2019Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 April 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 April 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 April 2016Debris and open burning5.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 April 2016Smoking1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 March 2016Debris and open burning10 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 January 2016Debris and open burning2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Berkshire County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 607 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 607 specimens collected within 10 miles of New Boston Inn between 1873 and 1974: 376 Plantae, 157 Fungi, 72 Animalia, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & A. C. Seymour, A. Pealey 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 Botrychium lanceolatum, not of this specimenBotrychium lanceolatum (S.G.Gmel.) Ã…ngstr.1873S. M. Piper
A photograph of the species Eleusine indica, not of this specimenEleusine indica (L.) Gaertn.1874Frederick N. Pease
A photograph of the species Gentianella quinquefolia, not of this specimenGentianella quinquefolia subsp. quinquefolia1875not recorded
A photograph of the species Botrychium dissectum, not of this specimenBotrychium dissectum Spreng.1879not recorded
A photograph of the species Balansia hypoxylon, not of this specimenBalansia hypoxylon (Peck) G.F.Atk.1882A. B. Seymour
A photograph of the species Bryum caespiticium, not of this specimenBryum caespiticium Hedw.1883unknownGranville
A photograph of the species Ceratodon purpureus, not of this specimenCeratodon purpureus (Hedw.) Brid.1883unknownGranville
A photograph of the species Chordeiles minor, not of this specimenChordeiles minor minor (J.R.Forster, 1771)1883Collector(s): H. C. Johnsonnear New Marlboro
A photograph of the species Cladonia P.Browne, not of this specimenCladonia P.Browne, 17561883A. B. SeymourGranville
Baeomyces roseus Pers.1895George T. MooreChestnut Hill
A photograph of the species Hypomyces hyalinus, not of this specimenHypomyces hyalinus (Schwein.) Tul. & C.Tul.1897Hollis Webster
A photograph of the species Mytilidion karstenii, not of this specimenMytilidion karstenii Sacc.1897Thaxter, R.Chestnut Hill

All 607 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this property

7 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sandisfield, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1994 and 2021: 3 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2021Thunderstorm WindSandisfield-Several trees were downed in Sandisfield.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindSandisfield-A tree was downed.
May 2018HailSouth Sandisfield-Quarter sized hail was reported in South Sandisfield during a thunderstorm.
June 2009Flash FloodSandisfield-Route 57 in Sandisfield was closed due to flash flooding from intense rainfall.
July 1995HailSandisfield-Severe thunderstorms brought large hail and very heavy rain. Nickel to golf ball-size hail lasted almost 20 minutes in Pittsfield and broke car windshields. Urban street flooding in Pittsfield reached a depth of two to three feet in city streets as storm drains backed up. The flooding lasted up to three hours. In Sandisfield, dime to quarter-size hail fell for five minutes.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindSandisfield-A few trees were reported blown down and power outages occurred.
July 1994HailSandisfield-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Berkshire 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.

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.

From the nomination file

4,005 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

New Boston Inn. Sandisfield. Massachusetts Certifyingofficial has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally statewide X locally D Applicable National Register Criteria Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Conmerce Period of Significance ca. 1750 - 1938 Significant Dates ca. 1750 ca. 1800 Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder N/A State significance of property, and justify criteria,criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above.

The New Boston Inn, Sandisfield, a building complex with components dating from the mid-18th to the late 19th century, retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and association. The major landmark in the village of New Boston, the complex includes the best-preserved central-hall, Federal period building in Sandisfield, and has operated as an Inn nearly continuously for over 230 years to the present. The New Boston Inn represents anunusually well-preserved example of the type of rural hotel associated with the overland transport system of upland interior Massachusetts in the 18th and 19th centuries, and with the discovery of the scenic Berkshire uplands as a resortby early 20th-century automobile tourists.

As such it fulfills criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places. Housatonic Township Number Three (later Sandisfield) was one of four townships located between Westfield and Sheffield that were granted by the Massachusetts General Court in 1737. The township's proprietors were primarily_prominent Worcester County men speculating on the rise in value of western lands. By the early 1750s, the township's meadow lands and strong uplands soils were attracting settlers from the older: more densely populated towns to the south and east. In particular, many families came from Wethersfield, Connecticut and from Cape Cod.

Read the complete 4,005-word case file.

The whole case file for this property - 4,005 words, 25 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 88001459, 25 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.

Listed places nearby

2 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
Montville Baptist Church2.5 miles2006
East Otis Schoolhouse5.8 miles2021

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 88001459 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Berkshire CountyAll 94 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.
  • 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.