Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
West Schoolhouse
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.
From the record
“In compliance with the foregoing, the inhabitants of the new town erected their first meetinghouse in 1732. Tlie chureh was organized with seventeen male members, October 24, 1733, and Mr.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (1880). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1990 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.90000144- 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 surface of Wilmington is not remarkably level, but presents several level plains which pleasantly contrast with some hills of prominence and bi'aiity. And tlie placid Silver Lake should not he passed liy. The stranger who visits it in summer cannot fail to admire its natural beauty. It is situated in the northwest part of the town, and contains some tliirty-five acres. The character of the soil is not very generally celebrated for its productions; yet a large portion will well reward judii-ious rulti\ation.
To tills territory was added a narrow strip of land lying on the westerly side of Reading, which was also early open to settlement. The names given to particular localities as earlv as 1()5S are still retaine.l. - as Coslieii, Xod, .Maple-meadow Brook, Lebanon, an,IJ.a(lder-l'ole. The two last are extcaisive cedar swamps which still maintain their early signilii'ai ion and value. JIaplc-meadow Brook is the main blanch of Ipswich River, wliich takes its rise iu Burlington, and after entering Wilmington takes a northeasterly course for about five miles, when it enters A'orth Reading. There are also li\c brooks whose waters flow into this one from the west side; four of which each operate a mill for a portion of the year.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 42 fires within 5 miles of West Schoolhouse between
2015 and 2020, burning about 20 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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
Debris and open burning
25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
11
Recreation and ceremony
3
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
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 776 specimens
collected within 10 miles of West Schoolhouse between 1898 and
1975: 363 Animalia, 280 Plantae, 117 Fungi, 7 Bacteria, 6 Unrecorded, 2 Protozoa, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A B. Proper, A. E. Feldman 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
14 workings within 5 miles of West Schoolhouse: 8 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown, 1 plant.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Titanium, Titanium, Metal. 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
Wilmington, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 4 lightning, 3 flash 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.
Several trees across Wilmington were downed by thunderstorm winds. This includes a tree down on a house on Lawrence Street and a tree down across the railroad tracks.
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
3,241 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 XA B Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) A B L Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Education Community Planningand Development D C D IE LL G Period of Significance 1875-1938 Significant Dates 1875 Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person Architect/Builder N/A N/A State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above.
The West Schoolhouse, Wilmington, Massachusetts, retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, feeling, workmanship, and association, and meets Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places at the Local level. The school was constructed in 1875, and is significant as one of Wilmington's earliest surviving schoolhouses. One of three survivors of the town's 19th century "district" school system along with the Old Centre and South Schoolhouses, the West Schoolhouse is a well-preserved example of the smal1 frame structures that served Wilmington's five school districts. Architecturally, the building is a simple example of a familiar building type, namely a small rural frame schoolhouse of the late 19th century.
Characteristic features include its gabled facade with two entries, plain frieze, and cornice returns. The town of Wilmington was incorporated in 1730, having originally been part of Woburn and Reading land grants of the mid-17th century. Located on the Boston-Merrimac corridor, Wilmington was primarily an agricultural community throughout the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The population grew very slowly from the mid-18th century to the early 20th (673 in 1765 to 1,596 by 1900).
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 90000144, 21 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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