Built in 1720 (First Period). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.
From the record
“Lieutenant Phineas tJpham, took a prominent part in King Philip's AYar, being severely wounded at tlie battle of Narragansett Fort, December 19, 1675, from the effects of which wound he died the year follow-ing. Phineas, the grandson of Lieutenant Upham, was the first to come to Melrose, and settled on Upham Hill, where there are still living several families of descendants on the old homesteads, on one of which, that of George Upham, is still seen the oldfashioned well-sweep with its " iron-bound bucket." The Barretts are descendants of James Barrett, who settled in Charlestown in 1635, and who afterwards came to Maiden, where his son James was born in 1644.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County (1880). Machine-read text.
One of 1,353 National Register listings published here for Middlesex County · listed in 1990 · category: Building · built in 1720, First Period.
Also known as. First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR
City. Melrose city
When was it built? 1720
Architectural style. First Period
National Register reference number.90000173- 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.
Melrose contains a superficial area of about 2,900 square acres, 2,7;iO of which are taxable. It is two and one eighth miles in length, and has an average width of two miles. It is bounded on the north by Wakefield, on the east by Saugus, on the south by Maiden, and on the west by Stoneham and a corner of Medford. It has four villages : Wyoming, at the south part of the town ; tiie Centre ; the Highlands, at the north ; and Norrisville, in the northeastern part. Its surface is charmhigly diversified with hill, valley, pond, and stream. From the summits of a number of its elevations - particularly Boston Rock in the south, Barrett's Mount in the centre, and West Rock, or Vinton Hill, in the north - extensive views of the surrounding country and of the ocean may be had. L Pond, situated in the centre of the town, so named from its shape, contains about thirty acres, and upon its borders are many of the finest residences. This pond received its name as early as 1638, nine years after the settlement of Charlestown, in whose records it is then mentioned ; and it was so called in manv other earlv documents.
It is often spelled "Ell," an undoubted misapprehension from its sound. It has recently been stocked with black bass and alewives by a fishing association under the protection of state law. Long Pond, in the eastern portion of the town, part of which is in Melrose and part in Saugus, is the source of the Saugus River. This and Swain's Pond, in the southeastern part of the town, were named as early as 1660, being then referred to in the Charlestown records. Dix, formerly Little, Pond, near the centre, is small, but it is the legendary pond of Melrose, rumor giving it a fathomless bottom from time immemorial.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 130 fires within 5 miles of Phineas Upham House
between 2003 and 2020, burning about 216 acres in total. None started naturally. 32 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
Arson/incendiarism
32
Recreation and ceremony
28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
27
Debris and open burning
18
Smoking
15
Misuse of fire by a minor
5
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Fireworks
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 1,274 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Phineas Upham House between 1898 and 1975: 495 Animalia, 449 Plantae, 281 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 15 Protozoa, 9 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded.
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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
13 workings within 5 miles of Phineas Upham House: 4 past producers, 4 plants, 3 producers, 1 unknown.
7 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Copper, Lead. 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
Melrose, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2012 and 2020: 2 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind.
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.
In Wakefield, trees were down on Avon St and Green St. A tree was down on a house on Main St. near the lake. Myrtle Ave was blocked by 5 large trees downed. A tree was down on Commuter Rail train tracks.
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.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 90000173, 10 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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