BlockFrom the record
One of 1,353 National Register listings published here for Middlesex County · listed in 1989 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Samuel W. McCall House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. McCall, Samuel W., House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. 4 McCall Rd., Winchester, 01890
- When was it listed? 1989-07-05
- Category. building
- Also known as. Winchester MRA
- Town. Winchester town
- National Register reference number. 89000657 - 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.
The ground it stands on
21,644 wordsThe chapter on Winchester Town in History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names Winchester. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
HE town of Winchester is in the easterly section of Middlesex County, eight miles northwest of Boston by the Boston and Lowell Railroad, whicii here sends off branches to Woburn and Stoneham. Its form is triangular, and it is bounded on the north and northwest by Woburn, on the east by Stoneham and Medford, on the south by Medford and Arlington, and southwest by Lexington.
Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.
December 3, 1849, the committee reported favorably upon the plan, their report was accepted, and a committee chosen to draft a petition to the legislature. December 7, 1849, the committee reported the draft of a petition, which was accepted, and another committee chosen to obtain signers thereto. Samuel S. Richardson, Oliver R. Clark, and John A. Bolles were chosen a committee to take the necessary stejis to secure a town charter, and they employed Hon. Albert H. Nelson, of Woburn, as tiieir counsel. December 24, 1849, a committee, of which Hon. F. O. Prince was chairman, Avas chosen to select a name for the town and insert tlie same in the petition, which had received one hundred and seventy-six names. A great deal of difficulty was experienced in settling upon the name to be given to the new cliild, but finally it was decided to christen it Winchester, in lionor of Colonel William P. Winchester, a wellknown and public-spirited citizen of Boston, who thus became its godfather. The petition was presented to the legislature, January 19, 1850, and referred to the committee on towns. While it was pending in the committee, remonstrances were ])resented and referred to said committee from Luke Wyman and ciglity-nine others, of West Cambridge (now Arlington), and the selectmen and one hundred and three others, of Medford. At a townmeeting, held inWoburn, February 7, 1850, it was " Voted, That tlie town is willing that the prayer of tlie petition should be granted on just and equitable terms, to be agreed upon by a committee from each part of the town."
Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Winchester Town - 21,644 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
70 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 70 fires within 5 miles of Samuel W. McCall House between 2015 and 2020, burning about 99 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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 | 28 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 |
| Debris and open burning | 12 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 10 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 18 September 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MELROSE |
| 18 September 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MELROSE |
| 5 August 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MEDFORD |
| 5 August 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 6.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MEDFORD |
| 30 August 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MEDFORD |
Specimens collected near this property
12 of 1,817 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,817 specimens collected within 10 miles of Samuel W. McCall House between 1898 and 1975: 771 Animalia, 572 Plantae, 407 Fungi, 30 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 11 Chromista, 9 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.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Trientalis borealis Raf. | 1900 | A. P. Chute | |
| Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not. | 1898 | Collector unspecified | ||
 | Bulbostylis capillaris var. crebra Fernald | 1898 | C. H. Knowlton | Boston. |
 | Cantharellus cinnabarinus (Schwein.) Schwein. | 1898 | not recorded | Newton. |
 | Cantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr. | 1898 | not recorded | Melrose. |
 | Cladonia coccifera (L.) Willd. | 1898 | Francis P Daniels | Cambridge |
 | Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber | 1898 | Francis P Daniels | Arlington Heights |
 | Cordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link | 1898 | Conant, [?] F. | Middlesex Fells |
 | Crataegus coccinea L. | 1898 | not recorded | Harvard University Arboretum |
 | Ctenidium malacodes Mitt. | 1898 | not recorded | |
 | Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc. | 1900 | A. K. Harrison | Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge. |
 | Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq. | 1900 | A. K. Harrison | Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge. |
All 1,817 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 11 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Samuel W. McCall House: 7 past producers, 2 producers, 2 plants. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Clay, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma. | Iron | Plant | ||
| Mahoney:S Rocky Ledge | Peat | Past Producer | Peat | |
| Rocky Ledge Pit | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma. | Silica | Plant | ||
| Burlington S & G Co., Inc. Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Burlington Sand and Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| D R Raymond | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Joseph Roberto Inc | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Joseph Roberto Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Quinn-Perkins Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
5 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Winchester, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 1995 and 1999: 4 flash flood, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1998 | Flash Flood | Winchester | $570,000 | Aberjona River |
| September 1999 | Flash Flood | Winchester | - | Aberjona River |
| February 1998 | Flash Flood | Winchester | - | no account filed |
| October 1996 | Flash Flood | Winchester | - | no account filed |
| October 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Winchester | - | no account filed |
Maps showing this location
16 surveysUnited 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.
- 1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
- 1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
- 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
- 1944 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:24000
- 1946 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:31680 - 3 printings
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
- 1956 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
- 1971 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:25000
- 1971 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Lexington quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1985 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000 - 3 printings
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther 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 | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Joseph Remick House | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | Edward Gardner House | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | Patience and Sarah Gardner House | 0.3 miles | 1989 |
 | Edmund Dwight House | 0.3 miles | 1989 |
 | Sanborn House | 0.4 miles | 1981 |
 | Asa Locke House | 0.4 miles | 1989 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 89000657 in Record Group 79. |
| Middlesex County | All 1353 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.
- 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.