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

Maynard, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Maynard town. It lies in ZIP code area 01754. It stands on Summer Hill. The Survey maps it on the Maynard quadrangle.

Maynard within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Maynard, surveyed 1989

Topographic sheet of Maynard, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

5,258 words on this township

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

Maynard is a small, new town, having been incorporated April 19, 1871, and named in honor of Amory Maynard, Esq., formerly of Marlborough, through whose untiring energy and sagacity the industries of the town have been developed. Of the territory, some 1,300 acres were taken from'tlie town of Stow, and included Pompsiticut Hill, and other good farming lands, devoted to orchards, tillage, and pasturage. Some 1,900 acres were taken from the northwesterly part of Sudbury, and included some good farming lands, but were to a great extent woodland, baving some of the largest growth of wood and timber to be found in Massachusetts. By an arrangement the town of Maynard agreed to pay to the town of Stow the sum of 36,500 as a compensation, and to the town of Sudbury the sum of $2ii,.500; the town of Sudbury to assign to the town of Maynard one hundred and four shares of their Framingham and Lowell railroad stock ; the town of Maynard was also to pay to the town of Sudbury the sum of three hundred dollars per year, for ten years, towards the support of their paupers, and one third part of all costs and expenses for the support of military pau])ers.

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

Very little is known of tlie first settlers of Maynard. Some of the lands now held by Jonathan E. Vose were conveyed by Benjamin Crane of Stow to Joseph Eice of Marlborough in 1685, and arc described as follows : " Six Stone and five acres of land that he purchased of John Woods, sen'', and .lohn Eutter, sen', and is bounded northward and westward with the land of Thomas Wedge, southward with the land of Solomon Johnson, Jun^ eastward with a highway thirty rods wide running between the squadron of lots, in the New Grants, of Sudbury, aforesaid. To have and to hold, the said tract of land six stone and five acres (be the same more or less) with the house thereon erected, and all the fences, belonging to the said tract of land and all timber and firewood and the orchard thereon, with all the conveniency of water thereon, wjiether of Pond or Brook and all profit and advantage." The family of Rices were long lived, and it is found that Jonathan Rice and Jonathan Rice, Jr., kept an inn at this place for about one hundred years.

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

Other of the earlier settlers of Maynard were Hezekiah Taylor, John Taylor, Thomas Smith, Amos Smith, William Skinner, William Carly, Zachariah Maynard, and John Brigham, and some of the settlers on the Stow side, of the river may be found in the proceedings of the proprietors at their meeting held May 19, 1719, when, as appears from Stow Old Proprietors' Book, a selection of lands was made, as follows : -

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, 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 Maynard Town - it names this place 8 more 8 times.

Fires near this place

58 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Maynard between 1997 and 2020, burning about 69 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 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	33
Arson/incendiarism	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Smoking	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Fireworks	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
5 September 2020	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
16 September 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
28 August 2017	Fireworks	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	HUDSON
27 August 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	HUDSON
26 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
24 August 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 August 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 754 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 754 specimens collected within 10 miles of Maynard between 1898 and 1975: 462 Animalia, 213 Plantae, 74 Fungi, 2 Chromista, 2 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley, A. C. Gibson 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
Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822	1900	not recorded	Wayland
Boletus griseus Frost	1898	H. Webster
Bromus ciliatus L.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Bromus secalinus L.	1898	Arthur French	Framingham.
Carex brevior (Dewey) Mack. ex Lunell	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex laxiflora Lam.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex pallescens L.	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex straminea Willd. ex Schkuhr	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Carex vulgaris var. hydrophila Holm	1898	Arthur French	Framingham.
Dichanthelium sabulorum var. patulum (Scribn. & Merr.) Gould & C.A.Clark	1898	Ernest Charles Smith	Framingham.
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, Roland	Stony Brook, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Boletus auriporus Peck	1900	G. E. Morris

All 754 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Maynard: 8 past producers, 5 producers, 2 unknowns. 5 still produce. What was taken out: 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
Acton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Acton Pit--Assabet S & G	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Acton Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Assabet Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Boxborough Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
D. B. Raymond Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hudson Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Kane Corporation Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lexington Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Melone Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

5 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Maynard in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2023: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flood, 1 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Maynard	$10,000	Trees and wires on Tremont Street and Dartmouth Court in Maynard and on School Street in Acton were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Maynard	$6,000	At 215 PM EST, a tree was downed on a car on Great Road in Maynard.
August 2018	Flood	Maynard	$5,000	At 6:59 PM EST, basement flooding was reported on Acton Street in Maynard.
August 2023	Flash Flood	Maynard	-	In Maynard, Parker St at Great Rd was flooded and impassable.
August 2015	Hail	Maynard	-	no account filed

Every storm 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
South Acton	1.7 miles	43
Damons Mills Westvale	1.8 miles	43
Lower Village	1.9 miles	43
Pine Lake	2.6 miles	43
Kelly Corner	2.9 miles	43
North Sudbury	2.9 miles	43
Stow	3.0 miles	43
Pine Rest	3.1 miles	43

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611474. 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.