Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. 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.
“Johnson House is a historic house at 36 Riverview Avenue in Swansea, Massachusetts. This 1-1/2 Craftsman bungalow is locally distinctive for its use of stone as a building material and tile as a roofing material.”
Wikipedia article J. V. Johnson House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1990 · category: Building · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Swansea Town in History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names Swansea. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
This town is memorable as the place where the first English blood was shed in " King Philip's War."2 On Sunday, June 20, 1675, King Philip permitted his men to march into Swansea and annoy the English by killing their cattle, in hopes to provoke them to commence the attack, for it is said that a superstition prevailed among them that the side who shed the first blood should finally be conquered. The Indians were so insolent that an Englishman finally fired upon one of them, and wounded him. The Indians upon this commenced open war. As soon as the intelligence of this massacre reached Boston, a company of foot under Capt. Henchman, and a troop under Capt. Prentice, immediately marched for Mount Hope, and being joined by another company of one hundred and ten volunteers under Capt. Moseley, they all arrived at Swansea June 28th, where they joined the Plymouth forces, under Capt. Cudworth. Mr. Miles' house, being garrisoned, was made their headquarters. About a dozen of the troop went immediately over the bridge, where they were fired upon out of the bushes, and one killed and one wounded. The English forces then pursued the enemy a mile or two, when the Indians took to the swamp, after having lost about a half-dozen of their number. The troop commenced their pursuit of the Indians next morning. They passed over
Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.
The history of this church possesses more than a local and temporary interest, as it relates to the religious and secular interests of all this region of country for a period of more than two centuries. Indeed, its history, with that of some of its pastors, connects it with some of the most important movements in the early annals of these colonies. Several of the contiguous towns, including Warren and Barrington, now in Rhode Island, and Somerset in this State, formed a part of Swansea, and the people were generally interested in the church, many of them as members, and most of them as adherents and coadjutors. Liberal measures were provided for the education of the young, and for the accommodation of all the people with the means of religious instruction and worship. Among the most active of the men thus employed was "Sir. Myles and Capt. Thomas Willett, the latter, who at a later period of life became the first English mayor of New York on its cession from the Dutch. Happy would it have been for the social, educational, and moral prosperity of the town of Swansea if the same principles could have been carried to their maturity which were so nobly acted on in the first period of its history.
Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.
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 Swansea Town - 42,670 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Johnson, J. V., House between 2006 and 2020, burning about 34 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 16 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 8 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 July 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 21 June 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,175 specimens collected within 10 miles of Johnson, J. V., House between 1844 and 1975: 575 Animalia, 444 Plantae, 98 Fungi, 48 Chromista, 10 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E Schuyler, A., A. B. Hervey 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Hibiscus moscheutos subsp. moscheutos | 1844 | not recorded | |
 | Pluchea camphorata (L.) DC. | 1844 | not recorded | |
 | Ranunculus bulbosus L. | 1850 | not recorded | |
 | Vitis labrusca L. | 1850 | not recorded | |
 | Apocynum cannabinum L. | 1855 | F. C. Seymour | Rehoboth |
 | Carex spicata Huds. | 1859 | Collector unspecified | Portsmouth. |
 | Scolopax minor J.F.Gmelin, 1789 | 1860 | Alan Poole | Westport |
 | Mercenaria mercenaria (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1870 | Lermond, Norman | Providence, Narragansett Bay. In market at Providence. |
 | Solidago latissimifolia Mill. | 1871 | J. W. Congdon | Seekonk. |
 | Chondrus crispus Stackhouse | 1874 | F. Wolle | Fall River |
 | Conomitrium julianum (Savi ex DC.) Mont. | 1874 | unknown | Fall River |
 | Doellingeria umbellata (Mill.) Nees | 1874 | J. H. Redfield |
All 1,175 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Johnson, J. V., House: 1 unknown, 1 plant. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swansea Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Plant | ||
| Tiverton Plant | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Swansea, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2025: 3 lightning, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood. 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 2002 | Lightning | Swansea | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | South Swansea | $15,000 | A National Weather Service Damage Survey team concluded that an EF1 tornado moved through portions of eastern Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. The tornado began as a waterspout that occurred just off of Rumstick Point in Barrington, Rhode Island. The waterspout then moved onto land over the southern portion of Warren near the Warren/Bristol line at Hanley Farm Road. It continued eastward across the Kickemuit River in the Touisset Highlands section of Warren then crossed the Cole River and continued to cause damage in the Ocean Grove section of Swansea.||Most of the damage had a rating of EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with wind speeds of 65 to 75 mph. However, there was one small section of Warren that experienced EF1 damage. Wind speeds in that area were estimated at 90 mph. ||The tornado path length was 4.2 miles and for the most part was continuous. It was very narrow with a path width of only 40 yards. The waterspout was first observed off of Barrington at 4:00PM EDT. It moved onto land in Warren at 4:05PM EDT and into Massachusetts at 4:10PM EDT.||No injuries were reported. The majority of the damage was to trees, some of which fell onto power lines and houses. There were numerous eyewitness accounts of dark funnels, swirling debris, and intense roaring. At least one garage door bowed out toward the path of the tornado. |
| August 2006 | Lightning | Swansea | $15,000 | no account filed |
| July 2025 | Lightning | Swansea | $10,000 | In Swansea, a garage was on fire due to lightning. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swansea | $3,000 | A tree on Route 136 was downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swansea | $500 | In Swansea, numerous small branches and limbs were blown down. |
| July 2023 | Flash Flood | Swansea | - | In Swansea, there was high water across entire portion of road near the 2000 block of Rt 6. |
| July 2019 | Flood | North Swansea | - | In Swansea, MA, Route 6 at Old Fall River Road was flooded and impassable. |
| September 2013 | Flood | North Swansea | - | Route 136 was flooded with eight inches of water. |
| July 2008 | Flash Flood | Swansea | - | Stevens Road was closed because of flooding. |
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.
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.
/Architect statement of significance (in one paragraph lease Feerthe summary paragraph completeness jestify the property 's garticua, _clarity mairdual seguiicande zem applicable criteria the cantext of sutrubarization _justification of areas checked Vrelating significance to the resource ofrvansea ender cuteriont or deletie conatLonship of integrity to signiticance it in recúbmission. _justification of exception other BIBLIOGRAPHY
The whole case file for this property - 1,909 words, 13 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 90000069, 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Gardner, Joseph, House | 0.2 miles | 1990 |
 | Gardner, Francis L., House | 0.4 miles | 1990 |
 | Anthony, David M., House | 0.5 miles | 1990 |
 | Gardner, Samuel, House | 0.5 miles | 1990 |
 | Anthony, Harold H., House | 0.6 miles | 1990 |
 | South Swansea Union Church | 0.6 miles | 1990 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 90000069 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Bristol County | All 272 listed properties in this county. |
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