Five Corners, Massachusetts
43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Lancaster town. It lies in ZIP code area 01523. It stands on North Nashua River. The Survey maps it on the Clinton quadrangle.
Then and now
1887 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1887 against another survey:
On record in Five Corners
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 within a mile 9 records
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
First Church of Christ, LancasterNational Historic Landmark · listed 1970 · 0.9 miles away
Atherton Bridgelisted 1979 · 0.3 miles away
Lancaster Industrial School for Girlslisted 1976 · 0.4 miles away
Old Settlers' Burying Groundlisted 2019 · 0.5 miles away
Middle Cemeterylisted 2019 · 0.6 miles away
Nathaniel Thayer Estatelisted 1976 · 0.7 miles away
South Lancaster Engine Houselisted 1976 · 0.9 miles away
Founder's Halllisted 1980 · 1.0 miles away- Eastwood Cemetery (Additional Documentation)listed 2024 · 0.7 miles away
Topographic sheets covering this place
20 surveys from 43 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1887 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
- 1896 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500
- 1898 USGS Marlboro quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
- 1908 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:25000
- 1965 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:24000
- 1975 USGS Clinton quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1997 USGS Hudson quadrangle1:25000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Lancaster town. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
History Op W0R0E3Ter County, Massachusetts
of war, generally proved faithful to the English, and their services as scouts were invaluable. Among these none deserves better to be honored in Lancaster story than James Wiser, alias Quanapaug or Quanapohit, whose courage and fidelity would have saved the town from the massacre of 1676, had not his timely warning been unwisely discredited by the apparently lethargic Governor and his slumberous Council.
In the county-history sources
29,485 words on this townshipHistory of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Lancaster Town covers the township.
Read the chapter on Lancaster Town - 29,485 words.
Fires near this place
117 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 117 fires within 5 miles of Five Corners between 2002 and 2020, burning about 2,741 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 54 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 22 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 20 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 14 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 12 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 14 August 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | DEVENS |
| 10 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 1 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 1,982 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,982 specimens collected within 10 miles of Five Corners between 1858 and 1974: 1,186 Animalia, 511 Plantae, 273 Fungi, 6 Unrecorded, 5 Chromista, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett, A. G. Chandler 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook. | 1899 | E. F. Williams | |
![]() | Quercus velutina Lam. | 1858 | E. S. Hoar | Road to Marlboro, Concord. |
![]() | Condylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1859 | E S Wheeler | BERLIN |
![]() | Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832) | 1861 | not recorded | Bolton |
| Clemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 1835 | 1864 | Agassiz | ||
![]() | Bromus sterilis L. | 1879 | C. E. Faxon | |
![]() | Merulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach. | 1879 | Howes, A. | Massachusetts |
![]() | Icterus galbula (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1881 | G. L. Brigham | Bolton |
| Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W. | 1881 | T. F. Allen | Nashua River | |
| Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats. | 1892 | W. B. Hosmer | ||
![]() | Castilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng. | 1892 | E. C. Smith | Marboro. |
| Tyrannus tyrannus (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1892 | G.L. Brigham | Bolton |
All 1,982 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 17 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Five Corners: 12 past producers, 4 producers, 1 prospect. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin Stone Co Quarry | Stone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Gneiss Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Sterling Prospect | Iron, Zinc | Prospect | ||
| Bates Sand and Gravel Co. | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Berin Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Berlin Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Berlin Town Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Bolton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Casaceli Trucking | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Casaceli Trucking Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lancaster | 0.9 miles | 43 | |
| South Lancaster | 1.1 miles | 43 | |
| Fullerville (historical) | 1.5 miles | 43 | |
| North Village | 1.8 miles | 43 | |
| Ebenville | 2.0 miles | 43 | |
| Seventh Day Adventist Village | 2.0 miles | 43 | |
| Clinton | 2.1 miles | 43 | |
| Duck Harbor (historical) | 2.3 miles | 43 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610856. 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.



























