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

Fells, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Melrose City. It lies in ZIP code area 02176. It stands on Black Rock. The Survey maps it on the Boston North quadrangle.

Fells 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 Fells, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Fells, 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

25,771 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880; History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Melrose City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

At a session of the General Court held Septeui- | ber 10, 1653, a committee of three, Thomas Marshall, John Smith, and John Sprague, was " chosen to lay out the country high way between Reddinge and Winnesemett." This was the first and only road through Melrose for many years. The various bounds were given by the committee, beginning at Reading, until it reached Melrose, and then they say it is to run " along on the east side of Thomas Coytmores lott, by Ele Pond, in the old way, to Thomas Lynds land, then through the first field, and so by the field by his howse, from thence, on the old way, by Maldou meeting howse, through the stony broade in good grounde, and six or eight where need rec]uires." " The old way " here referred to means the old, crooked Indian path, or trail, in use before this date, winding hither and thither, going around this hill, shuiniing that swamp or bog, and over which the early traveller wended his way between Reading and Chelsea. On a plan of Maiden surveyed by Peter Tufts, Jr., of Medford, in 1795, the only roads laid down in what was then North Maiden are the main road, called the Reading road, and a Stoneham road, which leaves this near the corner of what are now Wyoming Avenue and Main Street, where stands the Masonic Hall. There is one essential change between the main road as laid out in 1653 and that on this plan; it then went to the right of Boston Rock, in going north from Maiden, and at the time the plan was made it passed to the left. The old-time residents of North Maiden had to wend their way down this old road to " middle-town " whenever they attended divine worship, or when they wished to vote on electiondays, or take part in any of the town-meetings. The present :\Iain Street was built in 1806. A short time previous to this, in 1798, a two-horse stage, the first public conveyance through Melrose, commenced running between Boston and Reading, driven by Mr. Parwell Brown ; and after the new road was built stage lines between Boston, Andover, and Haverhill were established, which .also carried the mails.

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

When Maiden was incorporated nearly all of its territory above the settlement, a tract of 2,300 acres of undivided land, covering what was afterwards North Maiden, now Melrose, was a dense forest *y full of stately timber,'^ and ^' indeed generally all the country round about was an uncouth wilderness/' In time it came to be known as the '' common lands,'' or ''the commons,'' becoming Taluable as woodland and pasturage ; and various were passed by the town for its preservation and utility. The Maiden Records, March 26, 1694, contain the report of a committee '' to run lines between the Common and proprietors' lands, as follows: Bun y* bounds Eound Beedy pond 7* bounds are first a great buttenwood tree before Joseph Lines dore - and so bounded Bound with seuerall trees marked with letter C next common." November 20, of the same year, it was *' Voted, That y* common shall be divided : bottom and top, yt. is, land and wood " ; and six days afterwards, a committee of three. Major William Johnson, Captain John Brown, and Captain John Smith, reported to the town the manner in which it should be done, giving to every freeholder in the town a proportion according to his ratable estate. A committee of seven was then appointed to proceed with the division, and it was ordered that they ''emjdjoy an artis to lay out the lots." Every lot was to '' run 82 poles in length," and there was to be allowed '' two poles in breadth between every range of lots for highways.^. . . . Every proprietor's name to be written distinctly, and y« lots be well shuffled together, and one man chose by the town to draw them out of a bag. . Tlie first name drawn to have the first lot." This division was thus made in 1695, when seventy-four freeholders, then in Maiden, received their respective allotments.

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, published 1880.

Mary Ashton Livermore, so often called the ''queen of the platform," whose voice and pen are always used in behalf of woman, temperance, and all other causes tliat benefit humanity, has made her home in Melrose for the past dozen years. She has been editorially connected with the press for over twenty years. In 1858 her husband, Eev. D. P. Livermore, went to Chicago to become editor and publisher of The New Covenant, Mrs. Livermore becoming assistant editor. When the Rebellion broke out she became connected with the Sanitary Commission at Chicago, and, as president of the board of directors, performed a vast amount of labor in sustaining that beneficent movement

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 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 Melrose City.

Fires near this place

89 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Fells between 2015 and 2020, burning about 106 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/undetermined25
Recreation and ceremony14
Debris and open burning11
Smoking5
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
3 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
25 September 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlSAUGUS
23 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder 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

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,496 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,496 specimens collected within 10 miles of Fells between 1898 and 1975: 616 Animalia, 475 Plantae, 345 Fungi, 25 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 10 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 Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Bulbostylis capillaris, not of this specimenBulbostylis capillaris var. crebra Fernald1898C. H. KnowltonBoston.
A photograph of the species Cantharellus infundibuliformis, not of this specimenCantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.1898not recordedMelrose.
A photograph of the species Cladonia coccifera, not of this specimenCladonia coccifera (L.) Willd.1898Francis P DanielsCambridge
A photograph of the species Cladonia rangiferina, not of this specimenCladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber1898Francis P DanielsArlington Heights
A photograph of the species Cordyceps capitata, not of this specimenCordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link1898Conant, [?] F.Middlesex Fells
A photograph of the species Ctenidium malacodes, not of this specimenCtenidium malacodes Mitt.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Cucurbitaria elongata, not of this specimenCucurbitaria elongata (Fr.) Grev.1898J. G. Hall
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

All 1,496 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Fells: 5 past producers, 5 plants, 3 producers, 1 unknown. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Lead. 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
Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma.IronPlant
Mahoney:S Rocky LedgePeatPast ProducerPeat
Rocky Ledge PitClayPast Producer
Somerville Smelting Co.LeadPlant
Us Gypsum Co--BostonGypsum-AnhydritePast Producer
Ferro Ceramic Grinding--WakefieldSilicaPlant
Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma.SilicaPlant
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Malden QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

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
Oak Grove0.5 miles46
Wyoming0.9 miles46
Malden Highlands1.0 miles46
Malden Centre1.1 miles46
Maplewood1.1 miles46
Malden1.2 miles46
Melrose1.2 miles46
Faulkner1.2 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617634. 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.