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Photograph of Union Hall
Photograph by Ktr101, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Union Hall

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 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

“Truro Town Hall, formerly Union Hall, is the town hall of Truro, Massachusetts. It is located on Town Hall Road, east of Massachusetts Route 6.”

Wikipedia article Truro Town Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1997 · category: Building.

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. 24 Town Hall Rd., Truro, 02666
  • When was it listed? 1997-05-23
  • Category. building
  • Township. Truro town
  • National Register reference number. 97000470 - 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.

The ground it stands on

40 words

This property stands in Truro Town. History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 gives that township a chapter of its own.

The chapter covers the township.

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 Truro Town - 40 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

44 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of Union Hall between 1992 and 2020, burning about 33 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined15
Smoking8
Equipment and vehicle use5
Debris and open burning5
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Recreation and ceremony3
Arson/incendiarism2
Other causes1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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 1998Smoking3.0 acresCape Cod National SeashorePILGRIM HT
5 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreHEAD OF THE MEADOW
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreLONG POND ROAD FIRE
22 September 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreGROSS HILL ROAD FIRE
22 September 1997Debris and open burning1.0 acresCape Cod National SeashoreSHAPIRO
15 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreHORTONS ADVENTURE BOUND FIRE

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 2,937 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,937 specimens collected within 10 miles of Union Hall between 1827 and 1975: 2,490 Animalia, 231 Plantae, 101 Unrecorded, 57 Chromista, 50 Fungi, 8 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. K. Harrison, A. K. Harrison, G.C.H., A. M. Ottley 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
A photograph of the species Aralia hispida, not of this specimenAralia hispida Vent.1827A. M. Ottley
A photograph of the species Brevoortia tyrannus, not of this specimenBrevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802)1853Atwood, Nathaniel E.Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Pseudopleuronectes americanus, not of this specimenPseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum, 1792)1853Atwood, Nathaniel E.Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Scophthalmus aquosus, not of this specimenScophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, 1815)1856not recordedProvincetown
A photograph of the species Ammodytes americanus, not of this specimenAmmodytes americanus DeKay, 18421859Weinland, David FriedrichCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Pomatomus saltatrix, not of this specimenPomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1766)1859Ordway, A.Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Aspidophoroides monopterygius, not of this specimenAspidophoroides monopterygius (Bloch, 1786)1860Smithsonian InstitutionProvincetown
A photograph of the species Prionotus carolinus, not of this specimenPrionotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1771)1860Harvard MuseumProvincetown
A photograph of the species Stenotomus chrysops, not of this specimenStenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus, 1766)1860William BemisCape Cod Bay, Wellfleet Harbor
A photograph of the species Paralichthys oblongus, not of this specimenParalichthys oblongus (Mitchill, 1815)1862MCZ teamCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1864W. P. AlcottWellfleet
A photograph of the species Morone americana, not of this specimenMorone americana (Gmelin, 1789)1864MCZ teamCape Cod, rivers, Massachusetts

All 2,937 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Union Hall: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
John F Wood Inc.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
North Truro PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Storms near this property

1 since 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Truro, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report between 2012 and 2012: 1 lightning. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2012LightningTruro$10,000Lightning struck a cottage on Coast Guard Road, starting a fire.

Every storm recorded in Barnstable 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

6,580 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 theproperty for National Register listing.) X A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our 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. Barnstable County, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT Period of Significance 1848 - 1946 Significant Dates 1848, construction 1867, Town ownership Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) n/a Cultural Affiliation n/a Architect/Builder _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 continuationsheets.) n/a 9.

The whole case file for this property - 6,580 words, 24 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 97000470, 24 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
Cobb Memorial Library0.2 miles2013
Higgins, Jedediah, House0.8 miles1984
Pine Grove Cemetery1.4 miles2013
Ahearn House and Summer House2.7 miles1984
Highland House3.0 miles1975
Hatch, Ruth and Robert Jr., House3.3 miles2014

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 97000470 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Barnstable CountyAll 145 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.