Brighton, Massachusetts

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.

1893 1989

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 5 records

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

• Brighton Evangelical Congregational Churchlisted 1997 · 0.1 miles away
• Brighton Center Historic Districtlisted 2001 · 0.2 miles away
• Oak Square Schoollisted 1980 · 0.6 miles away
• Evergreen Cemeterylisted 2009 · 0.8 miles away
• Charles River Reservation (Speedway)-Upper Basin Headquarterslisted 2010 · 0.9 miles away

Surveyed buildings and structures 5 records

• Boston Water Works, Chestnut Hill High-Service Pumping Station, 2450 Beacon Street, Bostonfederal building survey, 6 photographs
• Boston Water Works, Leavitt Pumping Engine, 2450 Beacon Street, Bostonfederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Boston Water Works, Worthington Pump, 2450 Beacon Street, Bostonfederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Metropolitan Water Board, Chestnut Hill Low Service Pump Station, Beacon Street, Bostonfederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Milestones HH & II, Harvard Street, Brightonfederal building survey, 2 photographs

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 11 records

• Albany HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1884
• Arkerson, J., Cordage WorksWorks, in the atlas of 1884
• Brighton HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1884
• Cattle Fair HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1884
• Charles River HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1884
• Jamison's Machine ShopMachine Shop, in the atlas of 1884
• Lyman, A. R., LiveryLivery, in the atlas of 1884
• Orthodox ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1884
• Smith, G. W., Planing MillPlaning Mill, in the atlas of 1884
• St. Columbkille's ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1884
• Unitarian ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1884

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.

• 1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
• 1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500, 13 printings
• 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
• 1944 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
• 1946 USGS Newton quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1954 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1956 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
• 1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
• 1977 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1987 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

An account from the chapter on Boston city. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

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.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 49 fires within 5 miles of Brighton between 2003 and 2020, burning about 329 acres in total. None 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.

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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Aberdeen
• Forest Hills
• Jamaica Plain
• Roxbury
• Roxbury Crossing
• Back Bay

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald	1900	A. P. Chute
	Thalictrum L.	1810	Boott, J.W.	Near Boston.
	Anemone L.	1815	Boott, J.	Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
	Betula L.	1815	Boott, J.W.	Near Fresh Pond, Cambridge, 4 miles from Boston.
	Chenopodium album L.	1815	not recorded	Gathered at Bunker (properly Breed's) Hill.
	Corylus L.	1815	not recorded	Cambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
	Ericaceae	1815	Boott	Boston, U.S.A.
	Acanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)	1900	ZAPPEY, W R	ROSLINDALE
	Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
	Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
	Agaricus flavescens (Gillet) Sacc.	1900	G. E. Morris
	Agarum turneri Postels & Ruprecht	1900	J. Murdoch	Revere

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

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Brighton: 5 plants, 1 past producer. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium). Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. 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.

Every storm recorded in Suffolk County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.