Built in 1732 (First Period). 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 · built in 1732, First Period.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
This property stands in Wakefield Town. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880; History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, published 1880 gives that township a chapter of its own.
The chapter covers the township.
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 98 fires within 5 miles of Meeting House of the Second Parish in Woburn between 2003 and 2020, burning about 119 acres in total. None started naturally. 11 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 |
| Smoking | 12 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 11 |
| 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 |
| 21 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 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 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | SAUGUS |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,088 specimens collected within 10 miles of Meeting House of the Second Parish in Woburn between 1898 and 1975: 425 Animalia, 404 Plantae, 224 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 1,088 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Meeting House of the Second Parish in Woburn: 7 past producers, 5 producers, 2 plants, 1 occurrence. 7 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 | |
| Essex Bituminous Concrete Products | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Marlborough Plant/Polishing Plates | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Peabody Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Burlington, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 lightning, 2 hail, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2003 | Lightning | Burlington | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Burlington | $50,000 | Nine oak trees were uprooted by thunderstorm winds at Angela Circle. Another tree was downed on Center Street. |
| July 2009 | Flash Flood | Burlington | $50,000 | Numerous roads were flooded and subsequently closed as anywhere from two to four inches of rain fell across Middlesex County. The most affected areas include Framingham and Marlborough. In Framingham, roads were closed due to mudslides as well as flooding, including Routes 126 and 9. Walking trails at Garden in the Woods were also washed out. In Marlborough, basements were flooded and a portion of the driveway at the New Hope Community Church was washed out. |
| July 2025 | Lightning | Burlington | $10,000 | In Burlington, there was a structure fire due to lightning on Cutting Lane. |
| July 2014 | Lightning | Burlington | $10,000 | Lightning struck a house on Eugene Road setting the attic on fire. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Burlington | $5,000 | A tree on Manhattan Drive was downed onto wires by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Burlington | $5,000 | Wires on South Bedford Street and the Middlesex Turnpike were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Burlington | $1,000 | A large tree was downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Burlington | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Burlington | - | 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 - 1,413 words, 12 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 90000167, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Church-Lafayette Streets Historic District | under 500 feet | 1989 |
 | Suell Winn House | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | Deacon Thomas Kendall House | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | Common District | 0.2 miles | 1990 |
 | Temple Israel Cemetery | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | Goodwin, Captain-James Custis House | 0.2 miles | 1990 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 90000167 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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