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

Boylston Center, Massachusetts

44 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Boylston town. It lies in ZIP code area 01505. It stands on Pulpit Hill. The Survey maps it on the Shrewsbury quadrangle.

Boylston Center within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1989

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 Boylston Center, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Boylston Center, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

44 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

65 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Boylston Center between 2015 and 2020, burning about 38 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 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 burning38
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Arson/incendiarism6
Smoking5
Recreation and ceremony4
Misuse of fire by a minor2
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
2 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Smoking3.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
13 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 July 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 July 2020Smokingunder 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 1,887 shown

Museums hold 1,887 specimens collected within 10 miles of Boylston Center between 1839 and 1974: 1,047 Plantae, 550 Animalia, 262 Fungi, 17 Unrecorded, 7 Protozoa, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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 Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)1900Roscoe I. Giles
A photograph of the species Ochrolechia tartarea, not of this specimenOchrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.1839E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Carex laxiflora, not of this specimenCarex laxiflora Lam.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Mycobilimbia hypnorum, not of this specimenMycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner1848E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Tamias striatus, not of this specimenTamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)1848L AgassizPARSONS ISLAND
A photograph of the species Geranium maculatum, not of this specimenGeranium maculatum L.1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Packera aurea, not of this specimenPackera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve1850not recorded
A photograph of the species Carex aperta, not of this specimenCarex aperta Boott1853W. BoottMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,887 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 14 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Boylston Center: 10 past producers, 3 producers, 1 prospect. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Iron, Zinc. 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
Shrewsbury Trap RockStoneProducer
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Baldarelli Bros. Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Baldarelli Brothers Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F Ang G Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
F and G PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Landfill PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sewall PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Shrewsbury PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

5 since 2010

The National Weather Service names Boylston Center in 5 storm reports between 2010 and 2020: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. The reports record 1 injury. 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
June 2012LightningBoylston Center1 hurtA man was working at a home on Main Street when lightning struck nearby, knocking him to the ground. He was transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
May 2010Thunderstorm WindBoylston Center$20,000Multiple trees in Clinton and a large branch in Boylston were downed by thunderstorm winds. In addition, an amateur radio operator recorded a 59 mph wind gust on their home weather station.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindBoylston Center$2,000In Boylston, trees were snapped on Green Street.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindBoylston Center$1,000At 3:25 PM EST, wind brought a tree down on Rocky Pond Road in Boylston.
August 2015HailBoylston Center-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
Pleasant Valley1.8 miles45
West Boylston2.8 miles45
Morningdale2.9 miles45
Boylston3.2 miles43
Summit3.3 miles45
Great Brook Valley3.7 miles45
Burncoat4.0 miles45
Sterling Camp Grounds4.0 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610835. 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.