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

Brighton, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Boston City. It lies in ZIP code area 02135. The Survey maps it on the Newton quadrangle.

Brighton within Suffolk 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 Brighton, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Brighton, 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 Boston city, in the words of 1894.

1894, Boston City

City Charter

IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history.

Read the rest of this passage

Photographs

1 photograph,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Milestones HH & II, Harvard Street, Brighton, Suffolk County, MA
Milestones HH & II, Harvard Street, Brighton, Suffolk County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

23 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Brighton between 2003 and 2020, burning about 321 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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/undetermined9
Recreation and ceremony6
Smoking3
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning2
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
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROOKLINE
2 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
26 August 2017Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROOKLINE
23 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROOKLINE
23 July 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlBROOKLINE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 14,380 shown

Museums hold 14,380 specimens collected within 10 miles of Brighton between 1810 and 1975: 5,919 Plantae, 4,196 Fungi, 3,413 Animalia, 375 Chromista, 210 Protozoa, 188 Bacteria, 79 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A C Gibson 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 Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
A photograph of the species Thalictrum L., not of this specimenThalictrum L.1810Boott, J.W.Near Boston.
A photograph of the species Anemone L., not of this specimenAnemone L.1815Boott, J.Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Betula L., not of this specimenBetula L.1815Boott, J.W.Near Fresh Pond, Cambridge, 4 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Chenopodium album, not of this specimenChenopodium album L.1815not recordedGathered at Bunker (properly Breed's) Hill.
A photograph of the species Corylus L., not of this specimenCorylus L.1815not recordedCambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
Ericaceae1815BoottBoston, U.S.A.
Acanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE
Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Agaricus flavescens (Gillet) Sacc.1900G. E. Morris
Agarum turneri Postels & Ruprecht1900J. MurdochRevere

All 14,380 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

5 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Brighton: 4 plants, 1 past producer. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
C. J. MabardySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter CoLeadPlant
Industrial Serv. Centers--CambridgeIronPlant
Somerville Smelting Co.LeadPlant
Wheelock-Lovejoy--Cambridge, Ma.IronPlant

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Storms nearby

14 since 1999

The National Weather Service names Brighton in 14 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flood. 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 2014Thunderstorm WindBrighton$15,000Trees and wires were downed in Brighton and Chelsea.
September 2008Thunderstorm WindBrighton$7,000A tree and utility pole on Lake Street were downed by thunderstorm winds in Brighton. Wires on Utah Street in Boston also were downed.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindBrighton$1,100In the Brighton section of Boston, a tree was down on Englewood Avenue. Also, branches were down on the Mass Pike near the Newton line. Power lines were down on Cummings Road.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindBrighton$1,000At 755 PM EST, a tree was down on Washington Street in Brighton.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindBrighton$1,000At 605 PM EST, a tree was reported down on Beacon Street in Boston.
May 2020Thunderstorm WindBrighton$500In the Brighton section of Boston, a tree was down on Washington Street.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindBrighton$300In the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, wires were downed from wind.
January 2023FloodBrighton-At 9:00 AM, Boston Emergency Management reported street flooding due to catch basins not draining...at the intersection of Fleet Street and Commercial Street. At 10:45 AM EST, street flooding was reported on Terminal Street in Charlestown. At 11:15 AM EST, there was some street flooding at the intersection of Chestnut Hill Driveway and Beacon Street in the Brighton section of Boston.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindBrighton-In Brighton, there was a tree down on a car on Englewood Ave.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindBrighton-In Brookline, there was a tree down blocking Chestnut Hill Ave.
June 2020FloodBrighton-In Brighton, street flooding was reported at the 90 block of Strathmore Road.
August 2015HailBrighton-no account filed
July 2000HailBrighton-no account filed
July 1999HailBrighton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Suffolk 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
Faneuil0.5 miles46
Aberdeen0.5 miles46
North Brighton1.1 miles46
Allston1.7 miles46
Jamaica Plain3.4 miles46
Roxbury3.7 miles46
Back Bay3.7 miles46
Roxbury Crossing3.7 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612296. 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.