Methuen is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 47,255 at the 2010 census. Methuen lies along the northwestern edge of Essex County, just east of Middlesex County and just south of Rockingham County, New Hampshire. The irregularly-shaped town is bordered by Haverhill to the northeast, North Andover to the east, Lawrence and Andover to the south, Dracut to the west, Pelham, New Hampshire to the northwest, and Salem, New Hampshire to the north. Methuen is located 30 miles (48 km) north-northwest of Boston and 25 miles (40 km) south-southeast of Manchester, New Hampshire.
This is a list of properties and districts in Massachusetts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 4,300 listings in the state, representing about 5% of all NRHP listings nationwide and the second-most of any U.S. state, behind only New York. Listings appear in all 14 Massachusetts counties.
This list is of that portion of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) designated in Essex County, Massachusetts. The locations of these properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in a map.
First Baptist Church is an historic Baptist church building at 30 Park Street in Methuen, Massachusetts. Built in 1869 for a congregation established in 1815, it is one of the town's finest examples of Carpenter Gothic architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Harriet Francoeur Nevins née Blackburn, (1841–1929), was an American philanthropist and animal rights activist born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Widow of David Nevins, Jr., she used her inheritance to leave a legacy to the people of the Bay State. She died November 14, 1929 at her home in Methuen, Massachusetts.
The Town Farm, now the Easthampton Lodging House, is a historic poor farm at 75 Oliver Street in Easthampton, Massachusetts. It was established in 1890 as an inexpensive way to provide for the town's indigent population, and is the only locally run facility of its type to survive in the state. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The Emerson House is a historic house located at 58 Ayers Village Road in Methuen, Massachusetts. It is set in a rural corner of northeastern Methuen, near the town line with Haverhill.
The Methuen Water Works is a historic water works building on Cross Street in Methuen, Massachusetts. Built in 1893 or soon thereafter, it was one of the city's first major public works project. The surviving building, designed by Elbridge Boyden, is a distinctive local example of Romanesque architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It now houses offices of the city's water department.
The house at 526 Prospect Street in Methuen, Massachusetts is a well preserved Greek Revival house built about 1840. It is located near the city's historic early center, and was probably first occupied by farmers. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The North Canal Historic District of Lawrence, Massachusetts, encompasses the historic industrial heart of the city. It is centered on the North Canal and the Great Stone Dam, which provided the waterpower for its many mill complexes. The canal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, while the district was first listed in 1984, and then expanded slightly in 2009.
Park Lodge is a historic house in Methuen, Massachusetts. It is primarily noted for its association with industrialist and philanthropist Edward Searles whose Pine Lodge estate was nearby. Searles, a Methuen native who made a fortune in textiles and the railroad, made major contributions to the development of Methuen around the turn of the 20th century. This Craftsman style house, designed by Henry Vaughan and built in 1910, is a notable architectural element of Searles' legacy. The main block is a 2-1/2 story structure with a side-gable roof, which is extended to the left by a 1-1/2 story ell and to the front by a two-story projection. A shed-roof porch is in the crook to the left of this projection, and the main entrance is in the leftmost ell. The house is generally finished in stucco, with wooden shingles in the gable ends.
Searles High School, now Methuen City Hall, is an historic former school building at 41 Pleasant Street in Methuen, Massachusetts, and an excellent example of English Renaissance Revival architecture. It was designed by Henry Vaughan, a favorite of wealthy industrialist Edward Searles, who funded construction of the building in 1904. Searles was a major presence in the town, also funding construction of the Vaughan-designed Methuen Memorial Music Hall. In the atrium rests an early small demonstration version of the Emancipation Memorial, which Searles purchased from its designer, Thomas Ball. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. It now houses offices of the City of Methuen.
The Spicket Falls Historic District encompasses the historic industrial and commercial heart of Methuen, Massachusetts, and one of the lower Merrimack River's best-preserved 19th century mill complexes. It is centered on the falls of the Spicket River, from which the 19th century textile mills of Methuen derived their power. The historic district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, includes commercial and civic buildings in and near Gaunt Square, the heart of the city, and along both sides of the Spicket River between Gaunt Square and the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks south of the river. It abuts the residential Pleasant-High Historic District, which lies to its east.
The Asie Swan House is a historic house in Methuen, Massachusetts. Built c. 1720, it is one of the oldest buildings in the city. It is a 1-1/2 story frame house, five bays wide, with clapboard siding, central chimney, and granite foundation. Its central entrance is flanked by sidelight windows. The house originally stood at a location on Prospect Hill in what is now Lawrence, where it was used for the first town meetings beginning in 1726. It was moved in 1808 to its present location.
The Tenney Castle Gatehouse is a historic gatehouse at 37 Pleasant Street in Methuen, Massachusetts, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 1984. It is the only surviving element of the large estate of Charles H. Tenney, a leading local industrialist.
Westford Town Farm is a historic poor farm at 35 Town Farm Road in Westford, Massachusetts. Its main building is a 2 1⁄2 story brick building, five bays wide and six deep, that was built in 1837. It was twice enlarged, in c. 1840 and c. 1900. The enlargement consists of a wood frame addition on the north side of the building; the 1900 addition was built to replace that from 1840, and stands on its foundation. It served as the focal point for the town's support of its indigent population until 1959, a later date than many similar facilities statewide remained open. Since its closing it has continued to house town facilities, including as police and fire stations, and most recently as school administrative offices.
The Pearl Street School is a historic school building at 75 Pearl Street in Reading, Massachusetts. Built in 1939, the two-story brick and limestone building is Reading's only structure built as part of a Public Works Administration project. The site on which it was built was acquired by the town sometime before 1848, and served as its poor farm. With fifteen classrooms, the school replaced three smaller wood-frame schoolhouses in the town's school system, and was its first fire-resistant structure.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Methuen, Massachusetts, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
The Town Farms Inn is a historic poor farm on Silver Street at River Road in Middletown, Connecticut. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The poor farm provided employment and food for indigent people.
The Oliver Whiting Homestead is a historic farmstead on Old County Farm Road in Wilton, New Hampshire, just south of the County Farm Bridge. The 72-acre (29 ha) property was one of the region's largest dairy farms in the early 19th century, and it was used as Hillsborough County's poor farm between 1867 and 1896. The main focus of the property is a large Federal-style brick house built c. 1800 by Oliver Whiting; it also has an 1846 Gothic Revival barn which predates the establishment of the poor farm. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
