Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. 18 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
“The Lucius Clapp Memorial is a historic library building in Stoughton, Massachusetts. The single story masonry Renaissance Revival structure was built in 1903.”
Wikipedia article Lucius Clapp Memorial, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 342 National Register listings published here for Norfolk County · listed in 1992 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Stoughton Town in History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884 names Stoughton. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Amrpst the pealing of bells, the roll of drums, the thunder of cannon, and the inspiring strains of martial music the one hundredth anniversary of American independence is ushered in, the most memorable day of the nineteenth century. A whole country from the rugged shores of Maine to the golden sands of California, multitudinous cities born since the and dwell upon its associations. Taking its name from Governor William Stoughton, it included originally a much larger section than it at present comprises. The territory embraced at the time of incorporation, together with a part of Wrentham, had in with astonishing celerity, small villages remote from the whirl and excitement of business, all join in celebrating the occasion. The anthem of liberty wakes echoes in the hut of the squatter in Western wilds not less than in the luxurious homes of crowded cities.
Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.
From that date until December, 1726, it was called the Dorchester South Precinct, a part having been set off to Wrentham in the year 1724. The town of Stoughton was incorporated on the 22d day of December, 1726. of the Revolution, was four years old, and John It included the present towns of Canton, Sharon, and Stoughton, and nearly if not quite all of Foxborough and about one-quarter of Dedham. In those days the law of subtraction rather than annexation prevailed. The act of incorporation is entitled an "' Act for dividing there by the name of Stoughton." The preamble sets forth that " The town of Dorchester within the county of Suffolk is of great extent in length, and lies commodious for two townships, and the South Precinct within the bounds of Dorchester is competently filled said lands may be made a distinct and separate town- Then follows the act of incorporation, to which is attached a condition, making it incumbent in which the sons of those sires who, then united, hurled the British invader from our shores, now, arrayed against each other, fought the one side to devalor, for when Greek meets Greek then comes the tug of war.
Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.
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 Stoughton Town - 24,931 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 270 fires within 5 miles of Lucius Clapp Memorial between 2015 and 2020, burning about 83 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 | 83 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 59 |
| Smoking | 32 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 14 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | BROCKTON |
| 9 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | BROCKTON |
| 7 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | STOUGHTON |
| 6 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 6 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | SHARON |
| 5 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | SHARON |
| 4 September 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 5,813 specimens collected within 10 miles of Lucius Clapp Memorial between 1832 and 1975: 2,570 Plantae, 1,606 Animalia, 1,469 Fungi, 132 Protozoa, 19 Chromista, 13 Unrecorded, 4 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, A W Cheever 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Clethra alnifolia L. | 1900 | J. G. Hall | |
 | Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald | 1900 | A. P. Chute | |
 | Cornus sericea subsp. sericea | 1832 | Nathaniel T. Kidder | Milton, Brook Road |
 | Galium verum L. | 1846 | Kupell | |
 | Carex bullata Schkuhr | 1853 | Collector unknown | Houghtons Pond. |
 | Carex albicans Willd. ex Spreng. | 1854 | W. Boott | West Quincy: Blue Hills Reservation, River Road |
 | Chamberlainia salebrosa (Hoffm. ex F.Weber & D.Mohr) H.Rob. | 1857 | T. P. James | Randolph |
 | Carex swanii (Fernald) Mack. | 1870 | Joseph Blake | Sharon |
 | Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. | 1870 | Joseph Blake | Sharon |
| Chantransia hermannii (Roth) Desvaux | 1870 | F. W. Dewart | ||
 | Pyrenopsis phylliscina (Tuck.) Tuck. | 1870 | H. Willey | West Quincy. |
 | Rhynchospora macrostachya Torr. ex A.Gray | 1870 | Booth, W. | South Weymouth |
All 5,813 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Lucius Clapp Memorial: 10 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown, 1 occurrence. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thorn Mountain Prospect | Iron | Occurrence | ||
| Simeone Stone Corp | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Stoughton Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| A A Will Materials Cord | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| A Edward Sarni | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Avon Building Supply Co | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Avon Building Supply Inc. | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Boston Sand and Gravel Co | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Brockton Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Canton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Stoughton, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 4 lightning, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2009 | Lightning | West Stoughton | $500,000 | Lightning struck the roof of a condo at Knollsbrook Condominiums. The resultant fire spread to two other units. Three firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration while fighting the fire. One was transported to the hospital. These injuries were indirectly related to the lightning strike. |
| July 2008 | Lightning | Stoughton | $150,000 | A house on Christie Murphy Drive in Stoughton was struck by lightning and caught fire. The home was left uninhabitable. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stoughton | $50,000 | Trees and wires on Morton Street and Bay Road were downed onto wires by thunderstorms. One of the trees struck a house on Bay Road. |
| August 2012 | Flash Flood | West Stoughton | $35,000 | A car was trapped in floodwaters on Independence Avenue in Quincy. In Weymouth, Fogg Street was flooded with several inches of water at the entrance to the South Shore Emergency Room entrance. Columbian Street at Nevin Road was flooded with four feet of water. Bodwell Drive in Avon was flooded with several cars stuck in flood waters. Several feet of water on Route 37 in Braintree near the Mutual gas station closed the road. A car was stuck in flood waters at the intersection of Union Street and Grossman Drive. In Stoughton, three to four inches of water flooded the travel lanes on Route 27. |
| May 2013 | Tornado (EF0) | Stoughton | $20,000 | A tornado touched down at a car dealership on Route 138 in Stoughton where it was captured by a security camera and recorded on several employees cell phone cameras. Three RV trailers, weighing about 5000 pounds each, were pushed back about 6 feet against a chain link fence. One trailer was lifted about 15 feet into a light pole but landed on its wheels with minimal damage. An aluminum door about 20 feet high and 15 feet wide was blown out of the service garage. Eyewitnesses reported ceiling tiles being lifted inside the dealership as the tornado passed overhead. The tornado entered a wooded area just to the northeast of the dealership. Roughly one quarter of a mile away on Erica Drive and Dean Road, two large pine trees were downed before the tornado dissipated. |
| July 2008 | Lightning | Stoughton | $15,000 | A house on Daly Drive in Stoughton was struck by lightning leaving an 18 inch diameter hole in the roof. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stoughton | $10,000 | Trees in two areas of town were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stoughton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Lightning | Stoughton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Stoughton | $3,200 | In Stoughton, a tree and wires were down on Lakewood Drive, Pine Street, Access Road, and Brook Street. |
| August 2023 | Tornado (EF0) | Stoughton | $3,000 | A tornado briefly touched down in Stoughton on Eighth Street and|Corbett Street. Sporadic damage along a short path included fallen|trees, one of which fell onto a shed. Part of a fence was blown|in. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stoughton | $1,000 | At 230 PM EST, a tree was reported down on Pearl Street in Stoughton, near the High School. |
| August 2023 | Flash Flood | West Stoughton | - | In Canton, North Main St at Bay Rd was flooded. |
| July 2023 | Flash Flood | Stoughton | - | In Stoughton, Central St at Golden Rd was flooded. |
| June 2020 | Flood | Stoughton | - | In Stoughton, flooding was reported on Pearl Street. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Stoughton | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Stoughton | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Stoughton | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Stoughton | - | 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 - 6,248 words, 27 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 92000998, 27 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Stoughton Railroad Station | under 500 feet | 1974 |
 | House at 155 Reservoir | 2.5 miles | 1985 |
 | Cobb's Tavern | 2.6 miles | 1974 |
 | Stoneholm | 3.4 miles | 1980 |
 | Canton Viaduct | 3.6 miles | 1984 |
 | Canton Corner Historic District | 3.9 miles | 2009 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 92000998 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Norfolk County | All 342 listed properties in this county. |
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