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

Belvidere, Massachusetts

48 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lowell City. It lies in ZIP code area 01852. It stands on Fort Hill. The Survey maps it on the Lowell quadrangle.

Belvidere within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Belvidere, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Belvidere, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

48 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.

In the county-history sources

160,056 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Lowell City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The Lotvell Journal , March 10, 1826, in an account of these operations, says : " In digging this canal ledges were found considerably below the old canal, which bore evident traces of its having once been the bed of the river. Many places were found worn in the ledge, as there usually are in falls, by stones kept constantly in motion by the water ; some of these cavities were a foot or more ill diameter, and two feet deep."

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Five families moved ott' the ground occupied by the Merrimack Company ; 1,500 persons were now accommodated on the same ground. There were now, in all, one hundred tenements erected for those employed in the factories, print-works, and machine-shop. In the tenements of the Merrimack Company there were 967 persons ; 299 males and 668 females : in those of the machine-sho.p were 263; 162 males and 101 females. It was estimated that the population at that time was 2,500. In addition to this, Belvidere, separated from Lowell by the Concord River, contained a population of 300 or 400. There were already a dozen stores in the place, a church, a stone house almost ready for the rector, a school-house, and two hotels, - the Stone House and Frye's Tavern.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

May 4, the town acted on the petition of John Jjowell, Jr., and others to be annexed to Lowell. John Lowell, Jr., a son of Francis C. Lowell, came here with the intention of making Lowell his home. He had planned a magnificent structure to be located in Belvidere, just below the residence built by Samuel Lawrence, now owned by General B. F. Butler, where he no doubt intended to spend the remainder of his days. The keep, or house, at the entrance of his grounds is still standing, and was once owned or occupied by the late A. L. Brooks. It was thus early that he petitioned for the annexation of Belvidere. The vote stood ninety in favor of and fifty against the petition.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, 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 Lowell City - it names this place 17 more 17 times.

Fires near this place

131 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Belvidere between 2001 and 2020, burning about 71 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 28 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	34
Debris and open burning	32
Arson/incendiarism	28
Recreation and ceremony	16
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Smoking	4
Natural	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Other causes	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2002	Smoking	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
9 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
5 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
4 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 August 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 525 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 525 specimens collected within 10 miles of Belvidere between 1898 and 1975: 365 Plantae, 123 Animalia, 31 Fungi, 3 Chromista, 2 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Esox americanus Gmelin, 1789	1898	E. Preble	Maple Meadow Brook near Wilmington, Massachusetts
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Antennaria howellii subsp. neodioica (Greene) R.J.Bayer	1899	Williams, E.F.
Antennaria neglecta Greene	1899	not recorded
Aristida dichotoma Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Asarum canadense L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Bidens cernua L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. scribnerianum (Nash) Freckmann & Lelong	1899	E. F. Williams
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Betula nigra L.	1900	not recorded
Boletus frostii J.L.Russell	1900	A. W. Flint

All 525 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 22 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Belvidere: 10 past producers, 7 producers, 4 plants, 1 unknown. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Graphite, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Dracut Deposit	Cobalt, Nickel	Past Producer	1876, 1939
Dracut Ni Mine/Nickel Mine Hill	Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper	Past Producer
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Brox Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Chelmsford Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
Dracut Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Essex Bituminous Concrete Products	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
George Brox Inc	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
A J Gagnon and Sons	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Oaklands	0.4 miles	48
Bleachery	1.1 miles	48
South Lowell	1.3 miles	41
Centralville	1.4 miles	48
Lowell	1.5 miles	48
Ayres City	1.5 miles	48
Wamesit	1.7 miles	48
Kenwood	2.1 miles	48

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611765. 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.