Photograph by Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger), Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Rockland Memorial Library
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1989. 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 Rockland Memorial Library is the public library of Rockland, Massachusetts. It is located at 382 Union Street, in a Carnegie-funded Classical Revival building, which was built in 1903 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article Rockland Memorial Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.
National Register reference number.89000221- 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
397 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 397 fires within 5 miles of Rockland Memorial Library between
2015 and 2020, burning about 170 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 5 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
182
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
106
Recreation and ceremony
54
Smoking
24
Misuse of fire by a minor
20
Arson/incendiarism
5
Natural
4
Fireworks
2
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 1,479 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Rockland Memorial Library between 1836 and
1975: 819 Plantae, 357 Fungi, 260 Animalia, 19 Chromista, 13 Protozoa, 9 Unrecorded, 2 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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
18 workings within 5 miles of Rockland Memorial Library: 10 past producers, 8 producers.
8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Rockland, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2002 and 2025: 3 hail, 1 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind.
The reports record 15 injuries. 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
3,121 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
Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally statewide X locally Applicable National Register Criteria B C D Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) A C D F Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Period of Significance Architecture Education 1903- 1938 Significant Dates Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder McLean & Wright (Boston) State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Rockland Memorial Library possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, and association with the development of Rockland, previously part of Abington, as an independent town.
Constructed with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the library is one of the most significant architectural monuments in the town, retaining all of its major architectural elements on both the interior and exterior. The Rockland Memorial Library is of local significance and meets Criteria A and C for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Rockland is a town occupying about ten square miles, located approximately twenty miles southeast of Boston. Prior to 1874, Rockland formed the east Ward of the town of Abington and was commonly known as East Abington.
Settled in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the area was attractive forthe shoe manufacturing industry, which first appeared in Rockland during the late eighteenth century and became the focus of the community's economy by the mid-nineteenth century. Rockland was incorporated in 1874 as the result of a dispute over the construction of an expensive school building in Abington Center in 1871 and the belief that East Abington could develop into a more successful industrial community if separated from Abington.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 89000221, 12 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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