Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. 18 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
One of 1,353 National Register listings published here for Middlesex County · listed in 1990 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
The chapter on Wakefield Town in History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names Wakefield. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
TITS town is old, though its inline is new. Its history, as the abode of white men, runs back to 1639, when, under a special grant of land from the General Court to the town of Lynn of " four miles square," it was settled by families coin- \\\'S mostly from Lynn, and I'lok the name of Lynn Village. This grant included the territory substantially within the limits of tiie present towns of AYaketiekl and Reading. Tlie first settlement was made in what is now Wakefield, and in 1644, seven houses having been erected, seven families located, and a humble church edifice built, the village was made a town corporate, with the name of Reading. In 1651 a second grant of territory was made to the township of two miles square, including substantially what is now North Reading. In 1713 the inhabitants of the last-named territory, " having become of sufficient and competent numbers to call, settle, and maintain a Godly, learned, orthodox minister," were incorporated as a distinct parish by the name of tlie North Precinct of Reading, the remaining portion of the town being known as the First Parish. Li 1769 the northwesterly part of the First Parish, the part then called Woodend, was incorporated by the name of the West Parish of Reading, forming the nucleus of the present town of I
Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.
Reading. In ISH the old town was divided, and the First or South Parish, then commonly known as the Old Parish, including the present territory of Wakefield, was incorporated as a new town under the name of South Reading.
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 Wakefield Town - 8,069 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 95 fires within 5 miles of Goodwin, Captain-James Custis House between 2003 and 2020, burning about 119 acres in total. None started naturally. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 28 |
| Debris and open burning | 18 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Smoking | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 25 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | SAUGUS |
| 23 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 15 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | LYNNFIELD |
| 1 September 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 7 August 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | SAUGUS |
| 5 August 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | LYNN |
| 4 August 2015 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | AMESBURY |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,097 specimens collected within 10 miles of Goodwin, Captain-James Custis House between 1898 and 1975: 432 Animalia, 404 Plantae, 226 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 8 Unrecorded, 5 Chromista, 5 Protozoa. 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 | ||
 | 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 |
 | Ctenidium malacodes Mitt. | 1898 | not recorded | |
 | Cucurbitaria elongata (Fr.) Grev. | 1898 | J. G. Hall | |
 | 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. |
 | Aphanochaete repens A.Braun | 1900 | F. S. Collins | Middlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc. |
 | Batrachospermum gelatinosum (L.) DC. | 1900 | F. S. Collins | on stones in stream |
All 1,097 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Goodwin, Captain-James Custis House: 6 past producers, 4 producers, 2 plants, 1 occurrence. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Silica. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferro Ceramic Grinding--Wakefield | Silica | Plant | ||
| Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma. | Iron | Plant | ||
| Saugus Deposit | Iron | Occurrence | ||
| Drinkwater Quarry | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kay Locke Inc Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| New England Crushing Co | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Philip Drinkwater | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Marlborough Plant/Polishing Plates | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Richardson Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Roma Stone Pit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wakefield, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2010 | Lightning | Wakefield | 1 hurt | A 55 year old woman was injured when lightning struck her house in Wakefield. The woman was ironing when lightning struck and was thrown about 6 feet. She temporarily lost feeling in her right arm and was transported to the hospital. Doctors evaluated her, determining that no permanent damage was done but the strike had affected her right eardrum and thrown off her equilibrium. The house was found to be undamaged. |
| June 1998 | Flash Flood | Wakefield | $570,000 | Crystal Lake |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakefield | $10,000 | Trees and wires were downed onto a house on Parker Road by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakefield | $10,000 | Trees and wires on Muriel Street were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakefield | $5,000 | A tree was downed on a house at the intersection of Prospect and Sheffield Streets. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakefield | $2,000 | A large tree limb was downed onto the MBTA tracks near Greenwood Station. |
| July 2006 | Flood | Wakefield | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Wakefield | - | In Wakefield quarter sized hail was reported. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Wakefield | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Wakefield | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakefield | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Wakefield | - | no account filed |
United 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.
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 reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and 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.
The whole case file for this property - 1,952 words, 12 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 89000744, 12 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.
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 | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | William Stimpson House | under 500 feet | 1989 |
 | Suell Winn House | under 500 feet | 1989 |
 | Deacon Thomas Kendall House | under 500 feet | 1989 |
 | West Ward School | under 500 feet | 1989 |
 | House at 2 Nichols Street | 0.1 miles | 1989 |
 | Church-Lafayette Streets Historic District | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 89000744 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Middlesex County | All 1353 listed properties in this county. |
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