Falmouth, Massachusetts

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Barnstable County

The same ground, surveyed 108 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1886 1994

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 12 records

• Central Fire Stationlisted 1998
• Falmouth Pumping Stationlisted 1998
• Falmouth Village Green Historic Districtlisted 1996
• Lawrence Academylisted 1998
• Nobska Point Light Stationlisted 1987
• North Falmouth Village Historic Districtlisted 1998
• Elnathan Nye Houselisted 2002
• Poor House and Methodist Cemeterylisted 1998
• Teaticket Schoollisted 2002
• Josiah Tobey Houselisted 1994
• Waquoit Historic Districtlisted 2004
• West Falmouth Village Historic Districtlisted 1998

Surveyed buildings and structures 6 records

• Conent House, 65 Palmer Avenue, Falmouthfederal building survey, 7 photographs
• Marine Biological Laboratory, Carpenter Shop & Boat House, 99 Water Street, Falmouthfederal building survey, 7 photographs
• Marine Biological Laboratory, Garage & Storehouse Building, 103 Water Street, Falmouthfederal building survey, 5 photographs
• Marine Biological Laboratory, North side of Water Street & also on MBL, Albatross & North Streets between Water Street & Eel Pond, Village of Woods Hole, Falmouthfederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Marine Biological Laboratory, Shipping & Scuba Building, 101 Water Street, Falmouthfederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Marine Biological Laboratory, Supply Building, 111 Water Street, Falmouthfederal building survey, 9 photographs

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 12 of 15 shown

• School, at Woods HoleSchool, in the atlas of 1906 to 1923
• Avery HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1914 to 1923
• Breakwater HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1914 to 1923
• Tower HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1906 to 1923
• Column Terrace HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1923
• Hotel AveryHotel, in the atlas of 1906
• Hotel FalmouthHotel, in the atlas of 1906
• Joseph's Roman Catholic ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1923
• Millfield, at Woods HoleMill, in the atlas of 1923
• Oak Crest HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1923
• Post OfficeIce House, in the atlas of 1923
• Quissett Harbor HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1923

Every atlas business in Barnstable County

Falmouth grew from 3,799 to 3,818 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, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. 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.

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.

• 1886 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:62500
• 1888 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:62500, 9 printings
• 1915 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:62500
• 1920 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:62500
• 1936 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:25000
• 1941 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1942 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
• 1946 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1947 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
• 1948 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:25000
• 1948 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1949 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:25000
• 1957 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1957 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1963 USGS Providence quadrangle1:250000
• 1972 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1972 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:24000
• 1977 USGS Falmouth quadrangle1:25000
• 1986 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:100000
• 1994 USGS New Bedford quadrangle1:100000

History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

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.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Falmouth between 2017 and 2020, burning about 20 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Acapesket
• Davisville
• Falmouth Heights
• Mara Vista
• Menauhant
• Quissett

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 9,400 specimens collected within 10 miles of Falmouth between 1791 and 1975: 4,710 Animalia, 2,913 Plantae, 800 Fungi, 778 Chromista, 155 Bacteria, 23 Unrecorded, 21 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen, A. B. Harvey 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Enallagma civile (Hagen, 1861)	1899	J. Benedict	Woods Hole
	Erythemis simplicicollis (Say, 1840)	1899	J. Benedict	Woods Hole
	Lestes unguiculatus Hagen, 1861	1899	J. Benedict	Woods Hole
	Drosera filiformis var. filiformis	1791	not recorded
	Polysiphonia flexicaulis (Harvey) F.S.Collins	1839	unknown	Woods Hole
	Ectocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.	1841	B. F. D. Runk	Woods Hole, Nobska Point, wash
	Polysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey	1844	Collector unknown
	Alosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)	1852	not recorded	Wood's Hole, Massachusetts.
	Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1758	1852	not recorded	Wood's Hole, Massachusetts.
	Menidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)	1852	not recorded	Wood's Hole, Massachusetts.
	Prionotus evolans (Linnaeus, 1766)	1852	not recorded	Wood's Hole, Massachusetts.
	Ulva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh	1852	G. W. Perry

All 9,400 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Falmouth: 5 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Barnstable County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Falmouth in 22 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 16 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain, 2 hail, 1 flood. 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.

Every storm recorded in Barnstable County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616278. 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.