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Photograph of Tom Thumb House
Photograph by ProvRIGuy, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Thumb, Tom, House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. 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 Tom Thumb House is a historic house in Middleborough, Massachusetts. The story wood-frame house was built in the 1870s as a summer home for the dwarf entertainer Charles Stratton, best known by his stage name, General Tom Thumb.”

Wikipedia article Tom Thumb House (Middleborough, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1993 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 351 Plymouth St., Middleborough, 02346
  • When was it listed? 1993-04-16
  • Category. building
  • Township. Middleborough town
  • Architectural style. Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada
  • National Register reference number. 93000298 - 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.

Fires near this property

114 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 114 fires within 5 miles of Thumb, Tom, House between 2015 and 2020, burning about 108 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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
Debris and open burning61
Missing data/not specified/undetermined33
Misuse of fire by a minor13
Recreation and ceremony4
Arson/incendiarism2
Smoking1

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
6 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
17 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMIDDLEBOROUGH
17 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMIDDLEBOROUGH
16 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMIDDLEBOROUGH
15 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 855 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 855 specimens collected within 10 miles of Thumb, Tom, House between 1855 and 1975: 397 Plantae, 260 Animalia, 179 Fungi, 15 Protozoa, 4 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A., A. B. Seymour, A. K. Harrison 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 Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1855Preparator(s): Edwin V. KomarekMiddleboro
A photograph of the species Microtus pennsylvanicus, not of this specimenMicrotus pennsylvanicus pennsylvanicus (Ord, 1815)1855John W. JenksMiddleboro
A photograph of the species Peromyscus leucopus, not of this specimenPeromyscus leucopus (Rafinesque, 1818)1855John W. JenksMiddleboro
A photograph of the species Arethusa bulbosa, not of this specimenArethusa bulbosa L.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
A photograph of the species Carex comosa, not of this specimenCarex comosa Boott1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
A photograph of the species Carex crinita, not of this specimenCarex crinita Lam.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
A photograph of the species Carex folliculata, not of this specimenCarex folliculata L.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
Carex merritt-fernaldii Mack.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
A photograph of the species Carex virescens, not of this specimenCarex virescens Muhl. ex Willd.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough
A photograph of the species Dendroica petechia, not of this specimenDendroica petechia aestiva (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1899Arthur C. DykeBridgewater
Epilobium latifolium L.1899J. Murdoch, Jr.Middleborough

All 855 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Thumb, Tom, House: 6 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
K F Brick CoClayPast ProducerSedimentary
K-F No 2 Pit & PlantClayProducer
Styles and Hart Brick CoClayPast ProducerSedimentary
The Stiles & Hart Brick Co.ClayProducer
Bridgewater PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Byrne Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Carver Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Fillion Bruffee and Boucher PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Lakeville PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Nemasket Const PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth 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

6,877 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

Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) - A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. X B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. X C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type,period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.

Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. - B removed from its original location. - a birthplace or grave. D a cemetery. -E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. - F a commemorative property. - G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years. Plymouth County, MA County and State -Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) Architecture Entertainment Period of Significance ca.

1871-1910 Significant Dates Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) Tom Thumb Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder unknown Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 9.

The whole case file for this property - 6,877 words, 32 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 93000298, 32 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
Leonard. Shaw & Dean Shoe Factory1.8 miles2018
Washburn, C.P., Grain Mill1.9 miles1980
Pierce, Peter, Store2.0 miles1976
US Post Office-Middleborough Main2.0 miles1987
Middleborough Waterworks2.7 miles1990
Middleborough Waterworks2.8 miles1990

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 93000298 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Plymouth CountyAll 93 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.