Josiah Quincy House

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

One of 342 National Register listings published here for Norfolk County · listed in 1997 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

Listed as. Quincy, Josiah, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 20 Muirhead St., Quincy
When was it listed? September 1997
Category. building
National Register reference number. 97001274 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

221 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 221 fires within 5 miles of Josiah Quincy House between 2015 and 2020, burning about 102 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
Recreation and ceremony	145
Smoking	34
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	20
Debris and open burning	18
Fireworks	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	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.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BRAINTREE
7 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BRAINTREE
5 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	QUINCY
28 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BRAINTREE
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BRAINTREE
22 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	1.5 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BRAINTREE
17 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Josiah Quincy House: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Braintree Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Old Colony Crushed Stone	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Old Colony Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
1944 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:24000
1946 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:31680 - 3 printings
1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1954 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000
1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1956 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1970 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:24000
1970 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000
1977 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000
1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
1987 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000 - 2 printings
1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Josiah Quincy House	under 500 feet	1976
Massachusetts Fields School	under 500 feet	1990
Quincy Shore Drive	0.1 miles	2003
Wollaston Branch, Thomas Crane Public Library	0.4 miles	1989
Charles E. White House	0.5 miles	1989
Smith, A. C., & Co. Gas Station	0.6 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 97001274 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.

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.
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.