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Berea, Kentucky

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Berea census division. It lies in ZIP code area 40403. It lies near Welch Mountain. The Survey maps it on the Berea quadrangle. 15,539 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,024 feet above sea level.

Berea within Madison County

On record in Berea

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 8 records

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Berea grew from 13,561 to 15,539 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
201013,561
202015,539+1,978 (+15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 18 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Photographs

8 photographs, 2020

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
The Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, completed in 1909 and named for the legendary Appachian pathfinder, in Berea, Kentucky
The Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, completed in 1909 and named for the legendary Appachian pathfinder, in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
Direction sign to the Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, completed in 1909 and named for the legendary Appachian pathfinder, in Berea, Kentucky
Direction sign to the Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant, completed in 1909 and named for the legendary Appachian pathfinder, in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
The colorfule Weaver's Bottom Craft Studio in Berea, Kentucky's, Artisan Village
The colorfule Weaver's Bottom Craft Studio in Berea, Kentucky's, Artisan Village
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
Berea College, Lincoln Hall, Berea College, Berea, Madison County, KY
Berea College, Lincoln Hall, Berea College, Berea, Madison County, KY
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Outdoor art at the Artisan Village, a cluster of sculptors', weavers', jewelery designers' and other artists' shops in Berea, Kentucky
Highsmith, Carol M, 2020. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

79 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 79 fires within 5 miles of Berea between 1997 and 2019, burning about 602 acres in total. None started naturally. 12 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
Debris and open burning42
Missing data/not specified/undetermined15
Arson/incendiarism12
Recreation and ceremony5
Equipment and vehicle use2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
7 September 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
17 September 2000Debris and open burning1.5 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
15 September 1998Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
14 September 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
14 September 1998Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
27 August 2007Misuse of fire by a minor6.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
13 June 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
7 April 2002Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Madison County

Storms near this place

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Berea in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2006: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 tornado, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 death and 10 injuries. 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
September 1996LightningBerea1 killedno account filed
April 1996Tornado (F2)Berea10 hurt, $12,800,000no account filed
January 2006Thunderstorm WindBerea$50,000A mobile home was demolished.
October 2001Thunderstorm WindBerea$5,000no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBerea-no account filed
March 2003HailBerea-no account filed
June 2002HailBerea-no account filed
September 2000Thunderstorm WindBerea-no account filed
May 1998HailBerea-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindBerea-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Madison County

Newspapers printed here

9,113 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 1,228 issues, 9,113 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
The Citizen1899 to 1958

What the paper printed

11,689 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 5 issues spread across its run from 1899 to 1922, 11,689 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1899-07-19The Citizen3,731 words
1899-08-30The Citizen1,988 words
1899-10-11The Citizen612 words
1899-11-22The Citizen2,076 words
1922-12-28The Citizen3,282 words

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Middletown1.5 miles18
Blythewood Estates (historical)1.5 miles18
Slate Lick1.7 miles18
Wallaceton3.5 miles18
Farristown3.7 miles18
Whites4.3 miles17
Bighill4.8 miles16
Bobtown4.9 miles16

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on BereaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3180809The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 486894. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.

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.