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

Centralville, Massachusetts

48 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lowell City. It lies in ZIP code area 01850. It stands on Concord River. The Survey maps it on the Lowell quadrangle.

Centralville within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

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 Centralville, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Centralville, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

48 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.

In the county-history sources

160,056 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Lowell City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

January 11, 1841, Benjamin P. Varnum died at his liome in Centralville. Although Mr. Varnum belonged to Dracut, he was identified with the interests of Lowell. He was born in Dracut in 1795, tile son of General Joseph B. Varnum. He represented Dracut in the state legislature from 18i4 to 1827, and as senator from 1827 to 1831. | In 1828 he was appointed one of the board of county commissioners, which office he retained until 1831, when he was appointed sheriff for Middlesex County. He was succeeded in this office by General Samuel Chandler of Lexington, who retained the office until 1851, and was succeeded by Fisher A. Hildreth. In 1853 John S. Keyes of Concord was appointed sheriff, and in 1860 Charles Kimball succeeded him. Mr. Kimball died in 1878. Elisha Huntington was re-elected mayor.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

February 20, the city council instructed the representatives to the General Court to oppose the annexation to Lowell of that part of Dracut called Centralville. The Central Bridge Company obtained an act authorizing it to rebuild tiie bridge across Merrimack River, and it was accepted, April 5, by the city council. Foot-tolls were abolished on tliis bridge, - an inducement for people employed in Lowell to reside in Dracut.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

December 9, the question, " Is it expedient that the part of Dracut called Centralville be annexed to the city of Lowell, according to the petition of L. G. Howe and others ? " was voted upon ; yeas H.51, nays 1153. Notwithstanding this vnte, the bill before the legislature was passed, to be engrossed February 27, 1851, and approved by tiie governor the next day. The addition to Lowell was about three fourths of a square mile.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Lowell City - it names this place 6 more 6 times.

Fires near this place

136 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 136 fires within 5 miles of Centralville between 2001 and 2020, burning about 75 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 30 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	40
Arson/incendiarism	30
Debris and open burning	26
Recreation and ceremony	20
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Smoking	4
Natural	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Other causes	1

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
6 September 2002	Smoking	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
9 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
5 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
4 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 August 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 517 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 517 specimens collected within 10 miles of Centralville between 1898 and 1975: 357 Plantae, 93 Animalia, 34 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 3 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Antennaria howellii subsp. neodioica (Greene) R.J.Bayer	1899	Williams, E.F.
Antennaria neglecta Greene	1899	not recorded
Aristida dichotoma Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Asarum canadense L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Bidens cernua L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Dichanthelium oligosanthes subsp. scribnerianum (Nash) Freckmann & Lelong	1899	E. F. Williams
Elatine americana (Pursh) Arn.	1899	not recorded
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Betula nigra L.	1900	not recorded
Boletus frostii J.L.Russell	1900	A. W. Flint

All 517 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 22 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Centralville: 10 past producers, 7 producers, 4 plants, 1 unknown. 11 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Graphite, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Dracut Deposit	Cobalt, Nickel	Past Producer	1876, 1939
Dracut Ni Mine/Nickel Mine Hill	Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper	Past Producer
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Brox Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Chelmsford Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
Dracut Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Essex Bituminous Concrete Products	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
George Brox Inc	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
A J Gagnon and Sons	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Middlesex 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Dracut	1.0 miles	48
Pawtucketville	1.3 miles	48
Belvidere	1.4 miles	48
Lowell	1.6 miles	48
Oaklands	1.8 miles	48
Bleachery	1.9 miles	48
Ayres City	2.1 miles	48
Kenwood	2.2 miles	48

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611777. 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.