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Photograph of Benaiah Titcomb House
Photograph by Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Titcomb, Benaiah, House

Built in 1700 in the First Period. 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

“The Benaiah Titcomb House is a historic First Period house in Essex, Massachusetts. The oldest part of the house, built c. 1700 in Newburyport, was a two-story section two rooms wide, with a central chimney.”

Wikipedia article Benaiah Titcomb House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 350 National Register listings in Essex County · listed in 1990 · category: Building · built in 1700, First Period · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Essex County.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 189 John Wise Ave., Essex, 01929
  • When was it listed? 1990-03-09
  • Category. building
  • Also known as. First Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR
  • Township. Essex town
  • When was it built? 1700
  • Architectural style. First Period
  • National Register reference number. 90000208 - 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Essex town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From The Essex Antiquarian; a Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts, published 1897 - Essex Town

By Eliza Philbrick

We have but a faint conception of the sheep the privilege of grazing them on severe and varied labors of pioneer life, the common lands, and dogs that had Nearly everything we use today we buy killed sheep were hung, and the owners ready-made, while in the old days the of the guilty canines had also to pay colonists had to produce whatever they twice the value of the sheep killed, needed.

Read the rest of this passage

The ground it stands on

412,917 words

The chapter on Essex Town in The Essex Antiquarian; a Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts, published 1897 names Essex. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The following list is made up from the official records of the State, and contains the names of all soldiers and sailors of the Revolution that are given as belonging to Essex county. There are doubtless names of others on the official lists who belonged in the county, but the records do not state their residence.

Passage source: The Essex Antiquarian; a Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts, published 1897.

Jonathan Abbot of Andover; ens., Capt. Joshua Holt's co., which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, to Cambridge; service, i^ dys.; also, 2d It., Capt. Joshua Holt's (nth) co.. Col. Samuel Johnson's (4th Essex co.) reg. ; list of officers of Mass. militia ; commissioned April 3, 1776; «/r^, Capt. John Abbot's CO., Col. Jonathan Cogswell, Jr's., reg., Brig.-Gen. Farley's brigade ; list of officers of Mass. militia dated Ipswich Sept. 30, 1776 ; CO. drafted from training band and alarm list of the 4th Essex co. reg., and ordered to march to Horse Neck ; also, capt., nth CO., 4th Essex co. reg. ; list of officers of Mass. militia ; commissioned Oct. 7, 1779.

Passage source: The Essex Antiquarian; a Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, History and Antiquities of Essex County, Massachusetts, published 1897.

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 Essex Town - 412,917 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

38 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Titcomb, Benaiah, House between 2015 and 2020, burning about 43 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 burning17
Smoking8
Recreation and ceremony4
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Equipment and vehicle use2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
28 August 2016Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
25 August 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 August 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
3 July 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
26 July 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH
18 July 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlGLOUCESTER
3 June 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 June 2016Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlIPSWICH

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 5,685 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 5,685 specimens collected within 10 miles of Titcomb, Benaiah, House between 1821 and 1975: 2,002 Plantae, 1,766 Animalia, 1,240 Fungi, 299 Unrecorded, 258 Chromista, 95 Protozoa, 25 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A H HIGGINSON, A Perlmutter, A. A. Eaton 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Caloplaca murorum Th.Fr.Caloplaca murorum Th.Fr.1900Clara E. Cummings
A photograph of the species Brasenia schreberi, not of this specimenBrasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.1821not recordedPleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
A photograph of the species Glyceria obtusa, not of this specimenGlyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Lecanora tartarea, not of this specimenLecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.1839E. TuckermanManchester
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia yasudae, not of this specimenOchrolechia yasudae Vainio1839Tuckerman, E.[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clethra alnifolia, not of this specimenClethra alnifolia L.1840OakesHerbariumRowley
A photograph of the species Euphorbia polygonifolia, not of this specimenEuphorbia polygonifolia L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Iva frutescens, not of this specimenIva frutescens L.1840Oakesad Ipswich
A photograph of the species Potentilla anserina, not of this specimenPotentilla anserina L.1840Wolle, J.Ipswich
A photograph of the species Sisymbrium officinale, not of this specimenSisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.1840OakesIpswich
A photograph of the species Dasya C.Agardh, not of this specimenDasya C.Agardh, 18241842Collector unknownLittle River near Old Town, 6 miles from the sea
A photograph of the species Laminaria saccharina, not of this specimenLaminaria saccharina (L.) J.V.Lamour.1842N. PikePlum Island

All 5,685 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Titcomb, Benaiah, House: 4 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Atwater PitSand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Manchester Sand and Stone Co. QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Goodhue PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Ipswich PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Miles River Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
R W DrinkwaterSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms near this property

2 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Essex, the town this property stands in, in 2 storm reports between 2010 and 2020: 1 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2010FloodSouth Essex1 hurt, $9,800,000Several small streams rose above flood stage across Essex County, including the Ipswich River at Ipswich and South Middleton, the Shawsheen River at Andover, and the Parker River at Byfield. This river flooding, coupled with heavy rain and poor drainage flooding, resulted in a federal disaster declaration for seven counties in Massachusetts, including Essex County. ||Numerous streets were closed and basements flooded in Peabody, Salem, Newbury, Haverhill, Topsfield, Andover, Gloucester, Newburyport, Byfield, Middleton, and Rowley, including Route 128 S in Peabody and Route 1 in Topsfield. Portions of Merrimack College in Andover were flooded, submerging trees downed by the wind. Several cars were stranded in floodwaters, including one in Saugus at the Shaws parking lot, three on Woburn Street in Andover, and two on Foster Street in Peabody. Several people were trapped in the cars in Peabody, but were successfully rescued. Many streets in downtown Peabody were under four feet of water. Collections at the Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover were damaged by floodwaters.||In Lawrence, a total of 50 homes on Willow Street, Exchange Street, and Myrtle Street were evacuated. In addition, twenty eight people in the Holiday Inn Express on Winthrop Street were evacuated due to flooding in the hotel. Approximately 25 three tenant homes along the Spicket River were evacuated. The Carriage Hill Apartments in Amesbury were evacuated due to flooding from a nearby pond. The Washington Park Condos and all 110 residents of the Marland Place Assisted Living Center in Andover were evacuated.||A 500 foot stretch of Route 62 in Danvers was closed when a fifteen foot deep sinkhole developed because of an underground culvert that was washed out after nearly eight inches of rain fell. It reopened nearly three weeks later after work was delayed by a second major rainstorm.|A sewer treatment plant in Gloucester processed roughly 15 million gallons of wastewater during the storm, nearly 5 times capacity. As a result, excess wastewater was combined with runoff and released into the harbor.||One fatality indirectly resulted from the flooding when a 49 year old man drowned while pumping water from his office. A 15 year old girl was hospitalized for hypothermia after spending 45 minutes in the Ipswich River when the canoe she was in capsized.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindEssex$1,300In Essex, a large tree and wires were down on Main Street.

Every storm recorded in Essex County

Map coverage status

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

2,504 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 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 - 2,504 words, 17 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 90000208, 17 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Giddings, George, House and Barn0.6 miles1990
Goodale, Isaac, House0.6 miles1990
Smith House1.4 miles1990
Low, Thomas, House1.8 miles1990
House on Labor-in-Vain Road1.9 miles1990
Burnham, James, House1.9 miles1990

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 90000208 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Essex CountyAll 350 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • 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.