Brewster, Massachusetts
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Brewster town. It lies in ZIP code area 02631. The Survey maps it on the Orleans OE W quadrangle. 2,028 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 30 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBrewster grew from 2,000 to 2,028 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2,000 | |
| 2020 | 2,028 | +28 (+1%) |
Then and now
1887 to 1994The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Topographic sheets covering this place
32 sheetsMatched 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.
- 1887 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Wellfleet quadrangle1:62500
- 1942 USGS Cape Cod Bay quadrangle1:125000
- 1943 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:31680
- 1943 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:31680
- 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:24000
- 1961 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:24000
- 1963 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:25000
- 1974 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:25000
- 1974 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Harwich quadrangle1:25000
- 1986 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:100000
- 1994 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:100000
In the 1890 county history
30 words on this townshipThe county history of 1890 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Brewster Town covers the township.
Read the chapter on Brewster Town - 30 words.
Fires nearby
56 since 2015The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of Brewster between 2015 and 2020, burning about 26 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 3 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 | 24 |
| Debris and open burning | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Natural | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 17 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1520 |
| 2 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 2 August 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 2597 |
| 16 August 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected nearby
12 of 4,246 shownMuseums hold 4,246 specimens collected within 10 miles of Brewster between 1819 and 1975: 2,409 Animalia, 1,389 Plantae, 240 Fungi, 106 Chromista, 68 Bacteria, 33 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Hodgdon 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laminaria caperata Bachelot de la Pylaie, 1824 | 1819 | Collector unknown | ||
![]() | Carya tomentosa (Lam.) Nutt. | 1840 | Collector unspecified | |
![]() | Alosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814) | 1871 | MCZ team | Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
![]() | Bittiolum alternatum (Say, 1822) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, 1758 | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
| Gastropoda | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod | |
![]() | Helix Linnaeus, 1758 | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Hydrobia minuta (Totten, 1834) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Lacuna vincta (Montagu, 1803) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Littorina littorea (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Littorina rudis (Maton, 1797) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
![]() | Lunatia heros (Say, 1822) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
All 4,246 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Storms nearby
10 since 2006The National Weather Service names Brewster in 10 storm reports between 2006 and 2019: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 2 lightning, 1 hail. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Brewster | $20,000 | In Brewster, a large tree was down on Stony Brook Road. A tree and power lines were down on Run Hill Road. Numerous other trees were down throughout the town. |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | South Brewster | $12,000 | At 1139 PM EST, a basement was flooded on Robbins Hill Road in Brewster. At 1215 AM EST, the Ocean Edge Mansion on Main Street had flooding in the parking lot and the west wing of the building. At 1220 AM EST, a basement was reported flooded on Endicott Lane. At 1 AM EST, a basement was flooded on Lunds Farm Way. |
| August 2018 | Lightning | East Brewster | $10,000 | At 11:30 AM EST, lightning struck a condominium on Sea Pines Drive in Brewster and started a fire. |
| August 2018 | Lightning | West Brewster | $5,000 | At 10:17 AM EST, lightning struck a house on Red Top Road in Brewster, starting a house fire. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brewster | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Brewster | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Flood | South Brewster | - | At 11:58 AM EST, Sheep Pond Drive and Clark Road were closed due to flooding. |
| October 2017 | Flood | West Brewster | - | Stony Brook Mill area of western Brewster was flooding. A Storm Total of four and one-half inches of rain was measured by amateur radio in Brewster. |
| July 2015 | Flood | West Brewster | - | Main Street was flooded and closed for 20 minutes. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Brewster | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Brewster | 1.3 miles | 32 | |
| South Brewster | 1.5 miles | 31 | |
| West Brewster | 1.8 miles | 31 | |
| Pleasant Lake | 3.2 miles | 31 | |
| Namskaket | 4.2 miles | 33 | |
| East Dennis | 4.4 miles | 31 | |
| North Harwich | 4.9 miles | 31 | |
| South Orleans | 4.9 miles | 33 |
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.
| Wikipedia article on Brewster | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4962731 | The 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 615907. 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.
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.









































