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 Estey Tavern is a historic tavern in Middleton, Massachusetts. The 2.5-story wood-frame tavern house was built in 1753 by Samuel Bradford, who operated the tavern until 1763, when it was taken over by John Estey.”
Wikipedia article Estey Tavern, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 350 National Register listings in Essex County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Essex County.
National Register reference number.89001587- 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
96 since 2003
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 96 fires within 5 miles of Estey Tavern between
2003 and 2020, burning about 311 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
23
Recreation and ceremony
23
Smoking
19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
15
Equipment and vehicle use
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Fireworks
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Arson/incendiarism
2
Other causes
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 5,692 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Estey Tavern between 1800 and
1975: 2,680 Animalia, 2,034 Plantae, 733 Fungi, 120 Unrecorded, 59 Chromista, 58 Bacteria, 8 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A B. Proper, A E Preble, 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
7 workings within 5 miles of Estey Tavern: 4 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Thorium, Sulfur. 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
Middleton, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 flood, 3 flash flood, 3 hail.
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.
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
3,330 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
Certitying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: nationally -statewide [xlocally Xc -c -E OF -G Applicable National Register Criteria Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Commerce Signifi7snt Dates Cultyral Afiation Significant Person Architect/Builder State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Estey Tavern, Middleton, retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, and association. The property holds historical associations with Middleton's earliest commercial development and is significant as an excellent example of a Georgian style tavern.
Built in 1753, it achieves architectural significance as one of the earliest and most substantial buildings surviving in Middleton, and is the town's only remaining commercial building of the 18th century. Estey Tavern retains numerous early elements, including center entries set in enclosed porches, a pedimented surround, and an interior retaining much raised panelling, a barrel-vaulted ceiling at the second story, large fireplaces with their original equipment, and a beehive oven. building thus fulfills Criteria A and C of the Places on the local level. Middleton is a town located in the central portion of Essex County along its western border. Before its incorporation in 1728, Middleton was part of the towns of Andover, Boxford, Salem, and Topsfield.
Altered boundaries were established in 1904 and again in 1936. Originally inhabited by members of the Pawtucket or Penacook group, Middleton's European settlement began in the mid-17th century when there was a small and scattered community of farmers in the area. According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission Reconnaissance Report: Dispersed farmsteads continued to characterize most Middleton settlement throughout the Colonial Period (1675-1775).
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 89001587, 14 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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