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

Centre Village, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Littleton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01460. It stands on Wilderness Hill. The Survey maps it on the Westford quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.

Centre Village 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 Centre Village (historical), surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Centre Village (historical), surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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 1908 county history

12,505 words on this township

The county history of 1908 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for the smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Littleton Town covers the township.

Read the chapter on Littleton Town - 12,505 words.

Fires nearby

40 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 40 fires within 5 miles of Centre Village (historical) between 2015 and 2020, burning about 36 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 burning25
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Recreation and ceremony1

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
6 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2015Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 July 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 June 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
8 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 May 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 May 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined13 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 536 shown

Museums hold 536 specimens collected within 10 miles of Centre Village (historical) between 1898 and 1975: 312 Animalia, 137 Plantae, 57 Fungi, 27 Protozoa, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. F. Newton 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
A photograph of the species Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Exosporium pusillum, not of this specimenExosporium pusillum P.Karst.1898King C. A.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Salix eriocephala, not of this specimenSalix eriocephala Michx.1898E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Viola brittoniana, not of this specimenViola brittoniana Pollard1898Henry A. Purdie
A photograph of the species Chrysosplenium americanum, not of this specimenChrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Marsilea quadrifolia, not of this specimenMarsilea quadrifolia L.1899not recorded
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.1900Thaxter, R.Stony Brook
A photograph of the species Cephalanthus occidentalis, not of this specimenCephalanthus occidentalis L.1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Nuphar advena, not of this specimenNuphar advena (Aiton) Aiton1900M. RodmanConcord.
A photograph of the species Salix humilis, not of this specimenSalix humilis var. microphylla (Andersson) Fernald1900M. RodmanConcord.
Botryobasidium vagum (Berk. & M.A.Curtis) D.P.Rogers1930O. C. BoydConcord
A photograph of the species Carex communis, not of this specimenCarex communis var. communis1930E. J. PalmerRocky banks, top of Hemlock Hill. [Inferred locality from precise loc.]

All 536 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 Centre Village (historical): 8 past producers, 4 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 plant. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Kyanite, Graphite. 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
Fiber Matls Plant--Graniteville, MaGraphitePlant
Oak Hill Andalusite OccurrenceKyaniteOccurrenceMetamorphic
Acton PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Boxborough PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Britt ConstructionSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Britt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Kennedy Brothers Acton Sand and GraSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Nardone PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Nardone Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Littleton Common0.6 miles43
Littleton1.6 miles41
New Town (historical)1.7 miles43
East Littleton2.1 miles43
Boxboro Station2.5 miles43
Parkerville2.5 miles43
Forge Village2.8 miles43
Pingryville3.0 miles41

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 606273. 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.