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 Norfolk Grange Hall, previously known as First Baptist Church, is a historic Grange hall and former Baptist church at 28 Rockwood Road in Norfolk, Massachusetts. Built in 1863, it is one of the town's few surviving 19th-century civic buildings.”
Wikipedia article Norfolk Grange Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 249 National Register listings in Norfolk County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Norfolk County.
National Register reference number.89000438- 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.
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Norfolk town, The inset identifies its exact
source book and publication year.
He comes of early Colonial ancestry, being a lineal descendant in the eighth generation of John Coolidge, an early English immigrant, who was made a freeman at VVatertown, Middlesex County, this State, in 1636. Simon Coolidge, son of John, was the father of Obadiah and the grandfather of Joseph Coolidge, who was killed at the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Norfolk Grange Hall between
2007 and 2020, burning about 57 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
54
Recreation and ceremony
40
Debris and open burning
16
Smoking
15
Equipment and vehicle use
2
Railroad operations and maintenance
2
Arson/incendiarism
1
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 4,061 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Norfolk Grange Hall between 1867 and
1975: 2,216 Animalia, 1,052 Fungi, 644 Plantae, 102 Protozoa, 22 Chromista, 20 Unrecorded, 5 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Herz, 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
24 workings within 5 miles of Norfolk Grange Hall: 11 past producers, 11 producers, 2 unknowns.
11 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Granite. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
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
3,869 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 Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Social, Architecture JE Period of Significance 1863-1939 Significant Dates 1863 1922 Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder (unknowa) State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Norfolk Grange Hall, originally the Baptist Church of North Wrentham, has FCEEES construction in 1863.
It is representative of the religious and social life of the community in the 19th and 20th centuries, thus reflecting the broad patterns of Norfolk history. As a well preserved rural vernacular church in a prominent location near the center of Norfolk, it is one of the most important historic buildings in the town. The Grange Hall possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association and meets criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. The building was constructed by the North Wrentham Baptist Society under the direction of Pastor Daniel Round in 1863. It served as a church for 54 years until the diminishing Baptist congregation sold the building to the Norfolk Grange in 1921.
The Norfolk Grange organization, with very little alteration to the building, has used the hali for their meeting place and for social events until the present time. Under the ownership of the Grange, the hall has been used by the schools, churches, scouts, and town government. Because it has very few members today, however, the Grange is considering a plan to donate the building to the town. The Grange will continue to use the hall but the town will maintain it and open it to other groups.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 89000438, 18 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.
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