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

East Somerville, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Somerville City. It lies in ZIP code area 02145. It stands on Mount Benedict. The Survey maps it on the Boston North quadrangle.

East Somerville 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 Somerville, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of East Somerville, 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.

In the county-history sources

55,107 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 Somerville City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The land between these highways was divided into large farms, and held in comparatively few hands. Winter, Prospect, Spring, Central, and Walnut hills were pasture-lands, with an occasional growth upon them, mostly of red cedars. The now populous East Somerville was a farming tract. North of the Winter Hill road the fields stretched out to the marshes adjacent to the Mystic Eiver, in an expanse unbroken except by the farm at Ten Hills. Mount Benedict was under cultivation, and was termed " Ploughed Hill." It was said to have been so named because it had been customary to plough it in a circle around the hill, turning the furrows always down the slope. AVillis' Creek (the Miller's Eiver of later times) took its rise at the base of Spring Hill, and flowed with pure and pellucid stream through the meadows to the Charles Eiver.

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

Laud seldom changed hands, and had never been of sufficient value to be calculated by the foot. The highways were merely country roads, with grassy borders and in poor repair. Many of the old range-ways, previously described, had been enclosed by private parties. Highland Avenue was still a cart-path, lined with barberry-bushes and surrounded by open lands. It was impassable at night. Franklin Street could only be traversed on foot. East Somerville was in the fields. Spring Hill, whicli took its name in 1841 from the fine spring upon its summit, was just receiving its first streets. There were not a half-dozen houses in West Somerville between the junction of Elm and Milk streets and the Powder-House ; and the location which is now dignified by the name of Union Square was at that time merely a " country cross-road." There was no cluster of dwellings anywhere of sufficient importance to be designated a village. The total valuation of the town was $988,513, and she could boast of no rich men, scarcely any one paying a tax of a hundred dollars.

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

During this decade Somerville made no rapid strides, but advanced with a steady and encouraging growth. In 1843 the population had increased to 1,44.5, and real estate had nearly doubled in value. The high rate of toll on the bridges hindered travel and settlement, but facilities for reaching Boston were constantly improving. The Fitchburg Railroad Company, having bought the road of the Charlestown Brancli Railroad Company, began running trains December 20, 1843, and the Boston and Maine extension, chartered in 1844, began a few years later to promote the colonization of East Somerville. During the year 1846 two new school-buildings were erected, in which were contained the Franklin grammar and Prescott grammar and primary. In 1848 the Somerville schools took the first rank in the county, and the third in the state, in amount of money expended upon them in proportion to the wealth and population of the town. The annual expenditures had increased to §18,397.60 for the year 1848.

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 Somerville City - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Fires near this place

77 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 77 fires within 5 miles of East Somerville between 2015 and 2020, burning about 107 acres in total. None started naturally. 28 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/incendiarism28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Recreation and ceremony12
Debris and open burning9
Smoking6
Equipment and vehicle use1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
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 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,839 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,839 specimens collected within 10 miles of East Somerville between 1898 and 1975: 801 Animalia, 570 Plantae, 405 Fungi, 27 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 11 Chromista, 8 Unrecorded. 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 Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Boletellus russellii, not of this specimenBoletellus russellii (Frost) E.-J.Gilbert1898H. Webster
A photograph of the species Boletus peckii, not of this specimenBoletus peckii Frost1898H. WebsterEdge of Reservation
A photograph of the species Boletus speciosus, not of this specimenBoletus speciosus Frost1898J. R. Webster
A photograph of the species Bulbostylis capillaris, not of this specimenBulbostylis capillaris var. crebra Fernald1898C. H. KnowltonBoston.
A photograph of the species Cantharellus cinnabarinus, not of this specimenCantharellus cinnabarinus (Schwein.) Schwein.1898not recordedNewton.
A photograph of the species Cantharellus infundibuliformis, not of this specimenCantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.1898not recordedMelrose.
A photograph of the species Chimaphila maculata, not of this specimenChimaphila maculata (L.) Pursh1898Nathaniel T. KidderMilton
A photograph of the species Cladonia coccifera, not of this specimenCladonia coccifera (L.) Willd.1898Francis P DanielsCambridge
A photograph of the species Acanthis flammea, not of this specimenAcanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE

All 1,839 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of East Somerville: 9 plants, 2 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Gypsum-Anhydrite. 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
(Facility) Vulcan Smelter--Chelsea, Ma.Copper, LeadPlant
C. J. MabardySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma.SilicaPlant
Us Gypsum Co--BostonGypsum-AnhydritePast Producer
Whittemore Prdts Inc--BostonPerlitePlant
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter CoLeadPlant
General Metals & Smelting--BostonLeadPlant
Industrial Serv. Centers--CambridgeIronPlant

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
Somerville0.7 miles46
Ten Hills0.8 miles46
Winter Hill1.0 miles46
Spring Hill1.3 miles46
Cambridge1.3 miles46
East Cambridge1.3 miles46
Hendersonville1.6 miles46
Old Cambridge1.7 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612735. 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.