Built in 1834 in the Greek Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1999. 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 Universalist Society Meetinghouse is an historic Greek Revival meetinghouse at 3 River Road in Orleans, Massachusetts. Built in 1834, it was the only Universalist church built in Orleans, and is architecturally a well-preserved local example of Greek Revival architecture.”
Wikipedia article Universalist Society Meetinghouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1999 · category: Building · built in 1834, Greek Revival architecture.
National Register reference number.99000186- 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 71 fires within 5 miles of Universalist Society Meetinghouse between
1993 and 2020, burning about 41 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 3 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/undetermined
27
Equipment and vehicle use
15
Debris and open burning
9
Natural
9
Recreation and ceremony
6
Arson/incendiarism
3
Fireworks
1
Smoking
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 3,010 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Universalist Society Meetinghouse between 1819 and
1975: 1,482 Animalia, 1,185 Plantae, 165 Fungi, 68 Bacteria, 57 Chromista, 53 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Alan Hodgdon Hodgdon 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 National Weather Service names
Orleans, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2019: 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 lightning.
The reports record 1 death. 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 41 year old man was out digging for quahogs (clams) on the tidal flats of Little Pleasant Bay, a quarter mile east of Sipsons Island when he was struck by lightning and killed.
Amateur radio operators reported trees down on Route 28 Southbound. Wires were down on Main Street. A tree was down on wires on Blue Heron Way. A large tree was down on Quanset Road. Wires were down on Karen Lane.
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
4,601 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.) XA 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. XC 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. x 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. _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.) Barnstable, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) ARCHITECTURE RELIGION Period of Significance 1834-1949 Significant Dates 1834 Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) n/a Cultural Affiliation n/a Architect/Builder _Taylor, David, Jr.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 99000186, 17 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.
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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