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

East Lexington, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Lexington town. It lies in ZIP code area 02421. It stands on Mount Independence. The Survey maps it on the Lexington quadrangle.

East Lexington within Middlesex 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 East Lexington, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of East Lexington, 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 Lexington town, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1868, with a Genealogical Register of Lexington Families, published 1868 - Lexington Town

Farmer

He was first taxed in 1748< He was a member of Capt. Parker's company on the morning of 19 April 1775, and was severely wounded by a bullet which struck his right arm, and so fractured the bone that he was not only disabled for a long time, but pieces of bone were extracted from it for several months afterward.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

391,247 words on this township

History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1868, with a Genealogical Register of Lexington Families, published 1868 names this settlement in its chapter on Lexington Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

There is also a general defect in records, arising from the brevity of the entries. When an event is recent, and the details are fresh in the memory of the people, a concise memorandum may apparently answer the purpose. But when the event is forgotten, such a brief entry becomes almost useless. All records should be self-explaining ; so that they can be understood at any future day. Another defect arises from the fact that reports of Committees, appointed to obtain the facts in a given case, are not recorded. The record may say that the report is accepted and "placed on file." But in the country towns, where they have no permanent place to deposit their papers, such reports are soon lost or destroyed.

Passage source: History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1868, with a Genealogical Register of Lexington Families, published 1868.

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 Lexington Town.

Fires near this place

52 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 52 fires within 5 miles of East Lexington between 1992 and 2020, burning about 99 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 24 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
Arson/incendiarism24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined14
Debris and open burning9
Recreation and ceremony3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Natural1

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
8 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMELROSE
18 September 2015Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMELROSE
1 September 2001Naturalunder an acreMinute Man National Historical ParkFISKEHILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,999 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,999 specimens collected within 10 miles of East Lexington between 1898 and 1975: 844 Animalia, 645 Plantae, 445 Fungi, 30 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 9 Unrecorded, 9 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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 Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 18221900not recordedWayland
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Antennaria howellii, not of this specimenAntennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer1898Williams, E.F.
A photograph of the species Antennaria parlinii, not of this specimenAntennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Antennaria plantaginifolia, not of this specimenAntennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Boletus griseus, not of this specimenBoletus griseus Frost1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Acer carpinifolium, not of this specimenAcer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Acer palmatum, not of this specimenAcer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Agaricus brunnescens, not of this specimenAgaricus brunnescens Peck1900Morris, G. E.Waltham
A photograph of the species Alnus incana, not of this specimenAlnus incana subsp. rugosa (Du Roi) R.T.Clausen1900J. Murdoch, Jr.Roxbury
A photograph of the species Aphanochaete repens, not of this specimenAphanochaete repens A.Braun1900F. S. CollinsMiddlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc.

All 1,999 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of East Lexington: 8 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Peat, Clay, Iron. 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
Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma.IronPlant
Mahoney:S Rocky LedgePeatPast ProducerPeat
Rocky Ledge PitClayPast Producer
Burlington S & G Co., Inc. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Burlington Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Burton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
D R RaymondSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Joseph Roberto IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Joseph Roberto PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Quinn-Perkins PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

1 since 2022

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names East Lexington in 1 storm report between 2022 and 2022: 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
August 2022Thunderstorm WindEast Lexington$4,500In Arlington, numerous trees were downed. Locations included... Kipling Road, Charles Street, Walnut Street, Stowecroft Road, and Kensington Park.

Every storm 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
Sutherland Woods0.4 miles46
Follen Heights0.6 miles46
Munroe Station1.0 miles46
Countryside1.1 miles46
Arlington Heights1.3 miles46
Fuller Heights1.3 miles46
Lexington1.8 miles46
Shaker Glen1.9 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612166. 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.