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

Berlin, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Berlin town. It lies in ZIP code area 01503. It stands on Powderhouse Hill. The Survey maps it on the Clinton quadrangle.

Berlin within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Berlin, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of Berlin, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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.

Fires nearby

126 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 126 fires within 5 miles of Berlin between 2004 and 2020, burning about 72 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 burning55
Missing data/not specified/undetermined23
Recreation and ceremony20
Arson/incendiarism12
Smoking9
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARLBORO
7 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
28 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 September 2020Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,645 shown

Museums hold 1,645 specimens collected within 10 miles of Berlin between 1858 and 1973: 1,103 Animalia, 296 Plantae, 235 Fungi, 5 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. G. Chandler, A. K. Harrison 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 Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Quercus velutina, not of this specimenQuercus velutina Lam.1858E. S. HoarRoad to Marlboro, Concord.
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Bromus sterilis, not of this specimenBromus sterilis L.1879C. E. Faxon
A photograph of the species Merulius lacrymans, not of this specimenMerulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.1879Howes, A.Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Potamogeton gramineus, not of this specimenPotamogeton gramineus L.1879T. MorongLake Quinsigamond
A photograph of the species Potamogeton berchtoldii, not of this specimenPotamogeton berchtoldii subsp. berchtoldii1880T Morong
A photograph of the species Potamogeton vaseyi, not of this specimenPotamogeton vaseyi J.W.Robbins1880Faxon, E.; Faxon, C.E.Worcester, Lake Quinsigamond
Arphia sulphurea (Fabricius, 1781)1892unknownWellesley
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.

All 1,645 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 17 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Berlin: 14 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Berlin Stone Co QuarryStone, DimensionProducer
Gneiss QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Bates Sand and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Berin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
C and M EnterprisesSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Casaceli TruckingSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Casaceli Trucking PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
E L Dauphanis IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

7 since 1995

The National Weather Service names Berlin in 7 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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
July 2014LightningSouth Berlin$100,000A four unit senior housing building was struck by lightning, setting it on fire. No injuries occurred as a result of the fire.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindBerlin$20,000no account filed
July 2009Thunderstorm WindBerlin$10,000Trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2025Tornado (EF0)West Berlin$5,000EF1 tornado touched down west of Barnes Hill Road in Berlin, MA and traveled ENE crossing Derby road and West street. Many soft or hardwood trees snapped at the trunk or uprooted.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindSouth Berlin$2,500In Berlin, a tree was down on a guardrail on Coburn Road and West Street. A tree was down on Pleasant Street and a large limb was down at Pleasant Street and Kendall Lane. A tree was also down on Bridge Road at River Road West.
July 2021HailBerlin-In Berlin, half dollar size hail was reported.
May 1995Thunderstorm WindBerlin-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Carterville0.7 miles43
West Berlin1.3 miles43
South Berlin1.5 miles44
South Bolton2.0 miles43
East Berlin2.1 miles43
Fryville2.1 miles43
Seventh Day Adventist Village2.8 miles43
Chapinville3.1 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610833. 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.