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

Essex, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Essex town. It lies in ZIP code area 01929. It stands on Alewife Brook. The Survey maps it on the Ipswich quadrangle. 1,517 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 23 feet above sea level.

Essex within Essex County

Population over time

2 figures

Essex grew from 1,471 to 1,517 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	1,471
2020	1,517	+46 (+3%)

Then and now

1888 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 109 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Essex, surveyed 1997

Topographic sheet of Essex, surveyed 1888

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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 Essex town, in the words of 1897.

1897, Essex Town

By Eliza Philbrick

We have but a faint conception of the sheep the privilege of grazing them on severe and varied labors of pioneer life, the common lands, and dogs that had Nearly everything we use today we buy killed sheep were hung, and the owners ready-made, while in the old days the of the guilty canines had also to pay colonists had to produce whatever they twice the value of the sheep killed, needed.

Read the rest of this passage

Photographs

8 photographs,

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.

Milestone, Lower Road, Newbury Old Town, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

John Heard Estate, State Route 1A, Ipswich, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Lee Whipple House and Garden, Harbor Street, Manchester, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Captain Samuel Trevett House, 65 Washington Street, Marblehead, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Second Church, Beverly, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Milestones UU, VV, WW, XX, YY & ZZ, Various Newbury locations, Newbury Old Town, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Hennessey House, 2 Summer Street, Newburyport, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Milestone, Boston Road vicinity, Newbury Old Town, Essex County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

35 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 35 fires within 5 miles of Essex between 2015 and 2020, burning about 21 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 burning	16
Smoking	7
Recreation and ceremony	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
28 August 2016	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH
25 August 2017	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 August 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH
30 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BEVERLY
3 July 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	IPSWICH
21 July 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	GLOUCESTER
18 July 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	GLOUCESTER
3 June 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 6,697 shown

Museums hold 6,697 specimens collected within 10 miles of Essex between 1817 and 1975: 2,430 Plantae, 2,009 Animalia, 1,268 Fungi, 465 Chromista, 375 Unrecorded, 95 Protozoa, 55 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A H HIGGINSON, A Perlmutter, A. A. Eaton 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
Caloplaca murorum Th.Fr.	1900	Clara E. Cummings
Coluber constrictor constrictor Linnaeus, 1758	1817	not recorded	Loblolly Cove, Cape Ann
Brasenia schreberi J.F.Gmel.	1821	not recorded	Pleasant Pond, Wenham, Mass.
Glyceria obtusa (Muhl.) Trin.	1838	W Oakes
Lecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.	1839	E. Tuckerman	Manchester
Ochrolechia yasudae Vainio	1839	Tuckerman, E.	[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
Clethra alnifolia L.	1840	OakesHerbarium	Rowley
Euphorbia polygonifolia L.	1840	Wolle, J.	Ipswich
Iva frutescens L.	1840	Oakes	ad Ipswich
Potentilla anserina L.	1840	Wolle, J.	Ipswich
Sisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop.	1840	Oakes	Ipswich
Desmarestia viridis (O.F.Müll.) J.V.Lamour.	1841	C. E. Pease	Marblehead

All 6,697 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

4 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Essex: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Atwater Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Manchester Sand and Stone Co. Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Goodhue Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
R W Drinkwater	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

2 since 2010

The National Weather Service names Essex in 2 storm reports between 2010 and 2020: 1 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 injury. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2010	Flood	South Essex	1 hurt, $9,800,000	Several small streams rose above flood stage across Essex County, including the Ipswich River at Ipswich and South Middleton, the Shawsheen River at Andover, and the Parker River at Byfield. This river flooding, coupled with heavy rain and poor drainage flooding, resulted in a federal disaster declaration for seven counties in Massachusetts, including Essex County. \|\|Numerous streets were closed and basements flooded in Peabody, Salem, Newbury, Haverhill, Topsfield, Andover, Gloucester, Newburyport, Byfield, Middleton, and Rowley, including Route 128 S in Peabody and Route 1 in Topsfield. Portions of Merrimack College in Andover were flooded, submerging trees downed by the wind. Several cars were stranded in floodwaters, including one in Saugus at the Shaws parking lot, three on Woburn Street in Andover, and two on Foster Street in Peabody. Several people were trapped in the cars in Peabody, but were successfully rescued. Many streets in downtown Peabody were under four feet of water. Collections at the Stevens Memorial Library in North Andover were damaged by floodwaters.\|\|In Lawrence, a total of 50 homes on Willow Street, Exchange Street, and Myrtle Street were evacuated. In addition, twenty eight people in the Holiday Inn Express on Winthrop Street were evacuated due to flooding in the hotel. Approximately 25 three tenant homes along the Spicket River were evacuated. The Carriage Hill Apartments in Amesbury were evacuated due to flooding from a nearby pond. The Washington Park Condos and all 110 residents of the Marland Place Assisted Living Center in Andover were evacuated.\|\|A 500 foot stretch of Route 62 in Danvers was closed when a fifteen foot deep sinkhole developed because of an underground culvert that was washed out after nearly eight inches of rain fell. It reopened nearly three weeks later after work was delayed by a second major rainstorm.\|A sewer treatment plant in Gloucester processed roughly 15 million gallons of wastewater during the storm, nearly 5 times capacity. As a result, excess wastewater was combined with runoff and released into the harbor.\|\|One fatality indirectly resulted from the flooding when a 49 year old man drowned while pumping water from his office. A 15 year old girl was hospitalized for hypothermia after spending 45 minutes in the Ipswich River when the canoe she was in capsized.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Essex	$1,300	In Essex, a large tree and wires were down on Main Street.

Every storm recorded in Essex 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
Essex Falls	0.7 miles	42
South Essex	0.8 miles	42
Hamilton	3.2 miles	42
Manchester-by-the-Sea	3.8 miles	40
West Gloucester	4.0 miles	27
Wenham Neck	4.3 miles	40
Little Neck	4.4 miles	42
Aqawam (historical)	4.5 miles	42

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Essex	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5399624	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 614536. 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.