National Register reference number.96000163- 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.
Settlement. - The first settlement in Holden was made in 1723, in the easterly part of the town, on what is now known as the Ballard farm, and in the early records as the "Lime lot," this lot having received its name from a discovery of limestone therein in the spring of 1723, by James Eice, of Worcester, This discovery was of such importance to the new settlement that at a meeting of the proprietors, in March, 1723, a vote was passed, granting " encouragement to the first finder of limestones and untertaker of the burning lime for the supplying the town." A committee was appointed to agree with Mr. Rice to burn lime upon the following conditions, viz. :
Be it enacted by his Excellency the Governor, Council and Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same - That the Northerly part of the Towu of Worcester, within the following bounds, viz. : - bounding South-easterly on the lines dividing the North and South Proprieties of said Town, and is known as the dividing line ; westerly partly on the Town of Leicester, and partly on the Town of Rutland ; and easterly on the Town of Shrewsbury, be and hereby is set off, from the Town of Worcester, and erected into a separate and distinct Township by the name of Holden, and that the inhabitants thereof be and hereby are vested with all the Powers, Piivileges and Immunities which the inhabitants of other Towns within this Province do and by right ought to enjoy.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Willard-Fisk House
between 2015 and 2020, burning about 25 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
23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
8
Recreation and ceremony
6
Arson/incendiarism
1
Equipment and vehicle use
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 1,498 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Willard-Fisk House between 1839 and 1974: 958 Plantae, 292 Animalia, 228 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 3 Protozoa, 1 Chromista.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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
12 workings within 5 miles of Willard-Fisk House: 8 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown.
3 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Holden, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flood.
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.
A thunderstorm moved through Holden during the late afternoon hours on the 10th. Lightning struck two houses - blowing apart a chimney on one and setting fire to another. No injuries were reported.
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 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 ofour history. _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 religious institution or used for religious purposes. - B removed from its original location. _C a birthplace or grave. _ D a cemetery. _E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. _F a commemorative property. Worcester County, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) ARCHITECTURE Period of Significance Late 18th c. - 1945 Significant Dates Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder Unknown _G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years. Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 9.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 96000163, 26 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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