Holden, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1885 1989

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 8 records

• Eagleville Historic Districtlisted 2010
• Holden Center Historic Districtlisted 1977
• Holden Center Historic District (Boundary Increase)listed 1995
• Hubbard-Dawson Houselisted 1995
• Paddock Farmlisted 1996
• Rogers Houselisted 1982
• Stony Farmlisted 1995
• Willard-Fisk Houselisted 1996

Surveyed buildings and structures 2 records

• Alden Research Laboratory, Rotating Boom, Holdenfederal building survey, 3 photographs
• Venturi Meter, Holdenfederal building survey, 1 photograph

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 1 record

• Austin, W. E., Saw MillSaw Mill, in the atlas of 1910

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.

• 1885 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500
• 1886 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500
• 1892 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
• 1908 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
• 1934 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:24000
• 1939 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:31680, 5 printings
• 1943 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1960 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1974 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000
• 1974 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000
• 1983 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Holden Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 39 fires within 5 miles of Holden between 2015 and 2020, burning about 31 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:

• Holden Center
• Jefferson
• Dawson
• Lovellville
• Chaffinville
• North Woods

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,662 specimens collected within 10 miles of Holden between 1839 and 1974: 1,021 Plantae, 336 Animalia, 280 Fungi, 17 Unrecorded, 6 Protozoa, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.	1895	James F. Collins	South spur, Mount Wachusett
	Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen	1900	Davenport	Pine Hill; Medford
	Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1900	Roscoe I. Giles
	Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.	1839	E. Tuckerman
	Carex laxiflora Lam.	1840	Thomas Nuttall	Cambridge.
	Carex vestita Willd.	1840	Thomas Nuttall	Cambridge.
	Mycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner	1848	E. Tuckerman
	Tamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829)	1848	L Agassiz	PARSONS ISLAND
	Cladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson	1850	J. L. Russell	Leicester
	Geranium maculatum L.	1850	not recorded
	Packera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve	1850	not recorded
	Elymus repens (L.) Gould	1892	Arthur B. Seymour	Cambridge.

All 1,662 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Holden: 8 past producers, 3 producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Holden in 14 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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 Worcester County

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

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610490. 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.