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

Gloucester, Massachusetts

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Gloucester City. It lies in ZIP code area 01930. It stands on Black Rock. The Survey maps it on the Gloucester quadrangle. 29,729 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 49 feet above sea level.

Gloucester within Essex County

Population over time

2 figures

Gloucester grew from 28,789 to 29,729 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	28,789
2020	29,729	+940 (+3%)

Then and now

1886 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Gloucester, surveyed 1984

Topographic sheet of Gloucester, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

27 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.

Photographs

8 photographs, 1942 to 1943

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.

Gloucester, Massachusetts. The fiesta of Pentacost, celebrated before the Church of Our Lady of Good Voyage
Parks, Gordon, 1943. Library of Congress

On board the fishing boat Alden out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Maps of different sea routes in the ceiling of the skipper's cabin
Parks, Gordon, 1943. Library of Congress

Gloucester, Massachusetts. A fisherman
Liberman, Howard, photographer, 1942. Library of Congress

On board the fishing boat Alden, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. A school of mackerel is sighted and the skipper orders full speed ahead. The big boat speeds up to ten knots, towing the seine boat on the side and a small dory on the rear
Parks, Gordon, 1943. Library of Congress

On board the fishing boat Alden, out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fishermen chasing a school of mackerel
Parks, Gordon, 1943. Library of Congress

On board the fishing boat Alden out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Vito Gioclone. Gloucester, Massachusetts
Parks, Gordon, 1943. Library of Congress

Gloucester, Massachusetts. Deck of Old Glory covered with 85,000 pounds of rosefish
Liberman, Howard, photographer, 1942. Library of Congress

Fires nearby

24 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Gloucester between 2015 and 2020, burning about 19 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
Recreation and ceremony	10
Arson/incendiarism	5
Smoking	4
Debris and open burning	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Equipment and vehicle use	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
8 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
8 September 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
26 July 2020	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
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 5,118 shown

Museums hold 5,118 specimens collected within 10 miles of Gloucester between 1817 and 1975: 2,116 Animalia, 1,357 Plantae, 1,037 Fungi, 326 Chromista, 171 Unrecorded, 91 Protozoa, 20 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
Lecanora tartarea (L.) Ach.	1839	E. Tuckerman	Manchester
Ochrolechia yasudae Vainio	1839	Tuckerman, E.	[USA] Manchester, Massachusetts.
Iva frutescens L.	1840	Oakes	ad Ipswich
Splachnum ampullaceum Hedw.	1843	A. Gray; W. S. Sullivant	Manchester
Ceramium rubrum C.Agardh	1847	N. Pike	Cape Ann
Acolium tigillare (Ach.) Gray	1849	s.leg.
Arthonia E.Acharius, 1806	1849	Tuckerman Edward
Arthonia spectabilis Flot.	1849	Edward Tuckerman	Essex
Arthothelium spectabile A.Massal.	1849	William Oakes
Cyphelium tigillare (Ach.) Ach.	1849	W. Oakes	Essex

All 5,118 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

8 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Gloucester: 8 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Granite, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
John R Morse	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Johnson Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Mc Niff-Dominic Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mcniff Co Inc	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Morse Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Rockport Quarries Inc	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Town of Rockport	Granite	Past Producer	Granite
Town of Rockport Quarry	Granite	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

10 since 1997

The National Weather Service names Gloucester in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2020: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 lightning, 1 heavy rain, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 1997	Lightning	Gloucester	$100,000	no account filed
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Gloucester	$30,000	Power lines on Thatcher Road and Washington Street were downed by thunderstorm winds. A tree on Wheeler Street was downed onto a house.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Gloucester	$12,000	Multiple trees were downed in the Annisquam area.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Gloucester	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds downed large tree limbs at Eastern Point in Gloucester.
September 2007	Lightning	Gloucester	$5,000	A lightning strike ignited a brush fire.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	West Gloucester	$3,000	A tree and wires were downed on Washington Street.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Gloucester	$3,000	A large tree on Wheeler Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Gloucester	$3,000	Trees on Washington Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2020	Flood	West Gloucester	-	In Gloucester, Maplewood Avenue was flooded and impassable.
February 1999	Heavy Rain	Gloucester	-	no account filed

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
Five Pound Island	0.5 miles	27
Rocky Neck	0.7 miles	27
East Gloucester	0.8 miles	27
Riverdale	1.4 miles	28
Dogtown Commons	1.4 miles	28
Bass Rocks	1.4 miles	38
Riverview	1.5 miles	28
Riverview Landing	1.6 miles	28

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 Gloucester	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q49156	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 615084. 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.