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

Forest Hills, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Boston City. It lies in ZIP code area 02130. It stands on Scarboro Hill. The Survey maps it on the Boston South quadrangle.

Forest Hills within Suffolk 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 Forest Hills, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Forest Hills, 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Boston city, in the words of 1894.

1894, Boston City

City Charter

IN giving some notices of manners and social life during this period, I shall speak first of usages which were characteristic of the close of the last century: most of them continued without essential modification until our city charter swept away the old landmarks, and Boston felt the im¬ pulses which mark a new epoch in her history.

Read the rest of this passage

Fires nearby

84 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 84 fires within 5 miles of Forest Hills between 2003 and 2020, burning about 384 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.

Reported cause Fires
Recreation and ceremony42
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Smoking17
Equipment and vehicle use3
Arson/incendiarism2

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
23 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
2 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
17 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDEDHAM
14 September 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
11 September 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY
1 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlDEDHAM
7 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlQUINCY

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 14,058 shown

Museums hold 14,058 specimens collected within 10 miles of Forest Hills between 1810 and 1975: 5,591 Plantae, 4,257 Fungi, 3,434 Animalia, 343 Chromista, 205 Protozoa, 148 Bacteria, 80 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by (MARSDEN, H W), ?, A B Seymour 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
A photograph of the species Thalictrum L., not of this specimenThalictrum L.1810Boott, J.W.Near Boston.
A photograph of the species Anemone L., not of this specimenAnemone L.1815Boott, J.Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Betula L., not of this specimenBetula L.1815Boott, J.W.Near Fresh Pond, Cambridge, 4 miles from Boston.
A photograph of the species Chenopodium album, not of this specimenChenopodium album L.1815not recordedGathered at Bunker (properly Breed's) Hill.
A photograph of the species Corylus L., not of this specimenCorylus L.1815not recordedCambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston.
Ericaceae1815BoottBoston, U.S.A.
Acanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE
Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Agaricus flavescens (Gillet) Sacc.1900G. E. Morris
Alnus incana subsp. rugosa (Du Roi) R.T.Clausen1900J. Murdoch, Jr.Roxbury

All 14,058 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Forest Hills: 6 plants, 1 unknown. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Perlite. 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
West Roxbury Crushed Stone OperatioStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Whittemore Prdts Inc--BostonPerlitePlant
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter CoLeadPlant
General Metals & Smelting--BostonLeadPlant
Industrial Serv. Centers--CambridgeIronPlant
Us Steel Supply Div--BostonIronPlant
Wheelock-Lovejoy--Cambridge, Ma.IronPlant

Every working recorded in Suffolk County

Storms nearby

11 since 2000

The National Weather Service names Forest Hills in 11 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 2 flash 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2021Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$80,000Widespread damage occurred in much of Boston. Hardest hit were the Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Dorchester areas. A tree was down on Circuit Drive. Power lines were down on Neposet Valley Parkway. Two trees were down on the 400 block of Marlboro Street. A large branch was down on a car on the 1300 block of Commonwealth Avenue. A large tree was down on cars on Jamaica Street. A large branch was down on wires on Corman Road at Hallowell Street. A large tree was down onto two cars on Hallowell Street. A tree was down on North Crescent Circuit at Breck Avenue. A tree was down onto four cars on Lindsey Street and also a tree was down on a house on Lindsey Street. A tree and cable wires were down on Alleghany Street. In Roslindale, a large branch was down on Lower South Street next to Arnold Street.
February 2016Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$5,000A tree in Jamaica Plain was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$5,000A tree on Tower Avenue was downed across the road.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$5,000A tree on Boylston Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$5,000Wires on Murray Hill Road were downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindForest Hills$500In the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, a tree was down on Prince Street at Pond Street.
July 2023Flash FloodForest Hills-In Brookline, there was water coming up through manhole covers.
July 2023Flash FloodForest Hills-In Jamaica Plain there was significant road flooding with minor road damage on the 1500 block of Washington St.
June 2020HailForest Hills-Dime size hail was reported in Jamaica Plain.
August 2015HailForest Hills-Lime size hail fell in Jamaica Plain.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindForest Hills-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Suffolk 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
Roslindale1.2 miles46
Jamaica Plain1.3 miles46
Mount Hope1.4 miles46
Dorchester1.5 miles46
Mount Bowdoin1.6 miles46
Dorchester Center1.7 miles46
Grove Hall1.8 miles46
Clarendon Hills1.9 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 617645. 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.