BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Arlington Heights, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Arlington town. It lies in ZIP code area 02476. It stands on Arlington Heights Hills. The Survey maps it on the Lexington quadrangle.

Arlington Heights within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Arlington Heights, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Arlington Heights, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Arlington town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, published 1880 - Arlington Town

The Second Tkecinct In Cambridge

The command of the party of exempts is variously attributed to Pavid Lams on, a private soldier from Cambridge during the French War (see Paige, 405, note),* and to Phillips Payson, A.M., pastor of a church in Chelsea [H. U. 1754, D.D. &c.], both of whom were probably present. Bancroft says two wagons sent out to the troops with supplies were waylaid and captured by Payson, the minister of Chelsea.' Gordon, Hist.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

118,301 words on this township

History of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Arlington Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

It was the aim of the late Dr. Benjamin Cutter to preserve the decaying memorials of his native precinct, and much historical and genealogical matter was accordingly collected by him, and left unpublished at his death. It has been the design of his son to present this to the public in a convenient shape and durable form, with such additions as he has been able to collect. It is trusted that the work will prove valuable as a book of reference, notwithstanding that inaccuracies may occasionally be found.

Passage source: History of the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Arlington Town - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

65 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Arlington Heights between 1992 and 2020, burning about 106 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 30 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
Arson/incendiarism30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Recreation and ceremony8
Debris and open burning7
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Smoking1
Natural1

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
8 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMELROSE
18 September 2015Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMELROSE
1 September 2001Naturalunder an acreMinute Man National Historical ParkFISKEHILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 2,086 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,086 specimens collected within 10 miles of Arlington Heights between 1898 and 1975: 885 Animalia, 683 Plantae, 451 Fungi, 30 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 11 Chromista, 9 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Antennaria howellii, not of this specimenAntennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer1898Williams, E.F.
A photograph of the species Antennaria parlinii, not of this specimenAntennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Antennaria plantaginifolia, not of this specimenAntennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Acer carpinifolium, not of this specimenAcer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Acer palmatum, not of this specimenAcer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Agaricus brunnescens, not of this specimenAgaricus brunnescens Peck1900Morris, G. E.Waltham
A photograph of the species Alnus incana, not of this specimenAlnus incana subsp. rugosa (Du Roi) R.T.Clausen1900J. Murdoch, Jr.Roxbury
A photograph of the species Alnus serrulata, not of this specimenAlnus serrulata (Aiton) Willd.1900J. Murdoch, Jr.West Roxbury
A photograph of the species Aphanochaete repens, not of this specimenAphanochaete repens A.Braun1900F. S. CollinsMiddlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc.

All 2,086 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Arlington Heights: 7 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Clay, Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma.IronPlant
Mahoney:S Rocky LedgePeatPast ProducerPeat
Rocky Ledge PitClayPast Producer
Burlington S & G Co., Inc. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Burlington Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
D R RaymondSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Joseph Roberto IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Joseph Roberto PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Quinn-Perkins PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Thomas Quinn Co IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

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
Brattle0.7 miles46
Arlington1.3 miles46
East Lexington1.3 miles46
Sutherland Woods1.3 miles46
Countryside1.7 miles46
Belmont1.7 miles46
Follen Heights2.0 miles46
East Arlington2.1 miles46

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.

Wikidata item Q135683846The 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 612142. 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.