1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Historic districts in the United States
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Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some have hundreds of structures, the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, state-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level, local districts are generally administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, Charleston city government designated an Old and Historic District by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission, other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955. The Supreme Court case validated the protection of resources as an entirely permissible governmental goal. In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from rootlessness. By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts, Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context, in addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are, building, structure, site, district and object, all but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, however, the Register is an honorary status with some federal financial incentives. The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, a district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines generally begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Register is the official recognition by the U. S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, if the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected, a federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, however, if a property falls into one of those categories and are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected on the basis of owner disapproval, in the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object in order to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
3.
Winchendon, Massachusetts
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Winchendon is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,300 at the 2010 census, the town includes the villages of Waterville and Winchendon Springs. A census-designated place, also named Winchendon, is defined within the town for statistical purposes, the Winchendon State Forest, a 174. The House of Representatives made the grant of New Ipswich Canada, now Winchendon, on June 10,1735, the petition was on behalf of veterans or surviving heirs participating in the 1690 expeditions against Canada. The Millers River provided water power for mills, and at one time Winchendon produced so many wooden shingles that it was nicknamed Shingletown, Morton E. Converse started his business career in Converseville, New Hampshire, manufacturing acids. In 1873, he purchased a mill to make wooden products. Apparently he started making toys there, but soon teamed with Orland Mason of Winchendon to form the Mason & Converse Company, Converse then partnered with his uncle, Alfred C. Converse, and Converse Toy & Woodenware Company was formed, in 1887, the company changed its name to Morton E. Converse & Company. It remained in business until 1934, such a large number of toys were made in Winchendon that it became known as Toy Town. The original Giant Rocking Horse was built in 1912 by Morton Converse, the 12-foot grey hobby horse was named Clyde, and made from nine pine trees. It was a copy of the company’s #12 rocking horse, in 1914, Clyde entered the local parade to celebrate the town’s 150th anniversary. Clyde was moved to the station for about 20 years. Then in 1934, he moved to the edge of the Toy Town Tavern for about 30 years, after that, he was put in storage and fell into disrepair. A replica, Clyde II, was sculpted in 1988 using the original as a model and he is now on display in a covered pavilion. In addition to the manufacturing of products, Winchendon is known for its textile business during the Industrial Revolution. Located at the headwaters of the Millers River, Joseph ‘Deacon’ White of West Boylston, Massachusetts, with his son Nelson, by 1857, the Nelson Mills had revamped a previous facility. In 1870, Joseph N. White, son of Nelson, Spring Village became a prototype ‘company town’ with jobs, housing and a school for its workers. A second mill was built in 1887 and was known as the Glenallan Mill, the business thrived during the last half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Gristmill
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A gristmill grinds grain into flour. The term can refer to both the mechanism and the building that holds it. The Greek geographer Strabo reports in his Geography a water-powered grain-mill to have existed near the palace of king Mithradates VI Eupator at Cabira, Asia Minor, before 71 BC. The early mills had horizontal paddle wheels, an arrangement which became known as the Norse wheel. The paddle wheel was attached to a shaft which was, in turn, the turning force produced by the water on the paddles was transferred directly to the runner stone, causing it to grind against a stationary bed, a stone of a similar size and shape. This dependence on the volume and speed of flow of the water meant that the speed of rotation of the stone was highly variable. Vertical wheels were in use in the Roman Empire by the end of the first century BC, and these were described by Vitruvius. The peak of Roman technology is probably the Barbegal aqueduct and mill where water with a 19-metre fall drove sixteen water wheels, giving a grinding capacity estimated at 2.4 to 3.2 tonnes per hour. Water mills seem to have remained in use during the post-Roman period, from this time onward, water wheels began to be used for purposes other than grist milling. In England, the number of mills in operation followed population growth, limited extant examples of gristmills can be found in Europe from the High Middle Ages. An extant well-preserved waterwheel and gristmill on the Ebro River in Spain is associated with the Real Monasterio de Nuestra Senora de Rueda, the Cistercians were known for their use of this technology in Western Europe in the period 1100 to 1350. Geared gristmills were built in the medieval Near East and North Africa. Gristmills in the Islamic world were powered by water and wind. The first wind-powered gristmills were built in the 9th and 10th centuries in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, early mills were almost always built and supported by farming communities and the miller received the millers toll in lieu of wages. Most towns and villages had their own mill so that farmers could easily transport their grain there to be milled. These communities were dependent on their local mill as bread was a part of the diet. Classical mill designs are usually water powered, though some are powered by the wind or by livestock, in a watermill a sluice gate is opened to allow water to flow onto, or under, a water wheel to make it turn. In most watermills the water wheel was mounted vertically, i. e. edge-on, in the water, later designs incorporated horizontal steel or cast iron turbines and these were sometimes refitted into the old wheel mills
6.
Millers River
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The Millers River is a 52. 1-mile-long river in northern Massachusetts, originating in Ashburnham and joining the Connecticut River just downstream from Millers Falls, Massachusetts. The river was known as Paquag or Baquag, a Nipmuc word meaning clear water. Sections of the river are used for kayaking, and a section upriver is popular with flatwater racers. The Millers River drains an area of about 390 square miles, about 313 square miles of which are in Massachusetts. About 78 percent of the basin is forested,11 percent is open land,8 percent is wetland, the watershed is made up of all or part of 17 municipalities, with a population of approximately 87,000 people. Population centers are concentrated around Gardner, Athol, and Orange, many wetlands in the basin indicate areas of former shallow lakes and ponds that have gradually been filled. There are a total of 107 lakes and ponds in the basin,72 of which have an area of 10 acres or more, only one lake, 592-acre Lake Monomonac in Winchendon, Massachusetts, and Rindge, New Hampshire, is larger than 500 acres. The Millers River formed at the end of the last glacial period when several glacial lakes joined and, eventually, the North Branch and the main stem of the river join in Winchendon, and the river flows westward to the Connecticut River. These tributaries flow mainly through wetlands, overall, the Millers River has a moderate gradient, averaging about 18 feet/mile from the headwaters area to the USGS streamflow-gaging station at Erving, a stream distance of about 43 miles. The Birch Hill Dam is a control dam located on the Millers River in South Royalston. It is a part of a network of flood control dams on tributaries of the Connecticut River and it has a storage capacity of 16.3 billion US gallons. The Reservoir Regulation Team is the center for the New England flood control dams such as Birch Hill Dam. Using radio and satellite communications, RRT constantly monitors river levels, corps personnel, in conjunction with RRT, regulate the amount of water released downstream by raising or lowering the four 6 ft by 12 ft gates located in the gatehouse at the dam. In a time of water, the gates are lowered in order to hold back the water. In April 1987, two storms dropped over 6 inches of rain, raising the level to over 33 feet at the dam. It is estimated that Birch Hill Dam prevented over $9 million in damages to property from this one storm
7.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
