Amherst, Massachusetts

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Hampshire County

The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1885 1990

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 12 of 16 shown

• Emily Dickinson HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
• Amherst Central Business Districtlisted 1991
• Amherst Central Business District (Boundary Increase)listed 2011
• Amherst West Cemeterylisted 2000
• Baird Houselisted 1985
• Conkey-Stevens Houselisted 1979
• Cushman Village Historic Districtlisted 1992
• Dickinson Historic Districtlisted 1977
• East Village Historic Districtlisted 1986
• Goodwin Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churchlisted 2000
• Lincoln-Sunset Historic Districtlisted 1993
• North Amherst Center Historic Districtlisted 1991

Every listing in Hampshire County

Surveyed buildings and structures 3 records

• Amherst College, Lawrence Observatory, Route 116, Amherstfederal building survey, 6 photographs
• Boltwood-Stockbridge House, University of Massachusetts Campus, Amherstfederal building survey, 4 photographs
• Nehemiah Strong House, 67 Amity Street, Amherstfederal building survey, 5 photographs

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 10 records

• Opera HouseOpera House, in the atlas of 1892 to 1902
• Baptist ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1916
• Coe, W. D., Onion WarehouseWarehouse, in the atlas of 1916
• Congregational Church, CChurch, in the atlas of 1916
• Diekinson, L. E., Planing MillPlaning Mill, in the atlas of 1896
• Episcopal ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1916
• Hope ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1916
• New Loudon Northern R. R. Depot, &eDepot, in the atlas of 1896
• North Amherst Grammar SchoolSchool, in the atlas of 1916
• Post OfficeIce House, in the atlas of 1916

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.

• 1885 USGS Northampton quadrangle1:62500
• 1886 USGS Northampton quadrangle1:62500
• 1891 USGS Northampton quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Northampton quadrangle1:62500
• 1895 USGS Northampton quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
• 1896 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:125000
• 1897 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:125000
• 1901 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
• 1935 USGS Mount Toby quadrangle1:24000
• 1941 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1943 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:31680
• 1944 USGS Mt. Toby quadrangle1:31680
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1955 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1971 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:25000
• 1971 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:24000
• 1975 USGS Mt Toby quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
• 1990 USGS Williamsburg quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings

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.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 59 fires within 5 miles of Amherst between 2002 and 2020, burning about 53 acres in total. 3 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Amherst Center
• Factory Hollow
• Mill Valley
• North Amherst
• Plainville
• Russellville

Every fire recorded in Hampshire County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 10,184 specimens collected within 10 miles of Amherst between 1781 and 1975: 4,230 Animalia, 3,541 Plantae, 2,188 Fungi, 132 Chromista, 80 Protozoa, 12 Unrecorded, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A V Osmun, A. Albee, A. Allen 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.

Image	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Cercospora violae Sacc.	1895	Ralph E. Smith	Hothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
	Actias luna Linnaeus, 1758	1896	not recorded
	Plathemis lydia (Drury, 1773)	1896	not recorded
	Carex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey	1781	H. G. Jesup	Amherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
	Carex foenea Willd.	1781	H. G. Jesup	And Leverett
	Ustilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle	1810	J.E. Humphrey
	Ranunculus ambigens S.Watson	1831	S. Shurtleff
	Kalmia angustifolia f. angustifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
	Kalmia latifolia var. latifolia	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
	Pogonia ophioglossoides (L.) Ker Gawl.	1838	L. DeWette	Northampton.
	Dactylis glomerata L.	1839	S J Ewer
	Solidago arguta Aiton	1841	Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold Jesup	Amherst

All 10,184 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Amherst: 6 past producers, 5 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Brick Clay, Clay, Asbestos. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Hampshire County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Amherst in 42 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 26 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 3 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 6 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.

Every storm recorded in Hampshire County

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

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 608974. 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.

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.

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.

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.