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

Middlesex Village, Massachusetts

48 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lowell City. It lies in ZIP code area 01851. It stands on Black Brook. The Survey maps it on the Lowell quadrangle.

Middlesex Village within Middlesex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Middlesex Village, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of Middlesex Village, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

48 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

160,056 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 Lowell City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Early in 182G a stage line was established between Middlesex Village and Boston, to ruu three times a week. April 10, a stage ran from Lowell to Boston daily. June 30, Kurd's mill (woollen factory) and machine-shop were destroyed by fire. December 15, Central Bridge, across the Merrimack River, was finished so as to be passable. Its length, 500 feet; span of centre arch, 180 feet; two outer arches, 160 feet each. Luke S. Rand was architect and builder.

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

In 1821 Mr. Hurd sold the land and water privilege on the east side of Concord Eiver, comprising what was then the " island " in Belvidere, to Winthrop Howe, who built a mill, and disposed of the surplus power to other parties. This mill was sold to John Nesmith, who in turn sold to W. B. Park of Boston, in 1832. Mr. Park, having obtained a charter, sold his privilege in 1834 to Eliphalet Barber, Walter Farnsworth, and George Hill of Boston, the Belvidere Manufacturing Company. Having purchased the stone mill, they continued the business untd 1851, when Charles Stott and Walter Farnsworth bought out the company's interest. The stone mill was destroyed by fire in 1851, and the old flannel-mill in 1852. The company was reorganized in 1853 ; Messrs. Stott and Farnsworth conveyed one third of their interest to the new company. The brick mill on Lawrence Street, on the Wamesit Power Company's canal, was built in 1862. The capital stock is now $200,000. Charles Stott has been agent since 1835.

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

Lowell, in 1873, received a large accession of territory. That portion of Chelmsford called Middlesex Village was annexed, with an area of one thousand acres, estimated to contain fifty-five families, two hundred and sixteen inhabitants, and fortyseven voters. The valuation was $200,000. One thousand acres were annexed from Dracut, and six hundred and sixty acres from Tewksbury.

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 Lowell City.

Fires near this place

121 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 121 fires within 5 miles of Middlesex Village between 2001 and 2020, burning about 68 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 30 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	36
Arson/incendiarism	30
Debris and open burning	25
Recreation and ceremony	16
Natural	4
Smoking	4
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Other causes	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
6 September 2002	Smoking	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 September 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands	not named
9 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
5 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
4 August 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
18 August 2002	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 510 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 510 specimens collected within 10 miles of Middlesex Village between 1898 and 1975: 349 Plantae, 96 Animalia, 32 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 3 Chromista, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Mathieson, A. F. Newton, A. F. Newton, M. K. Thayer 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
Exosporium pusillum P.Karst.	1898	King C. A.	Stony Brook
Aristida dichotoma Michx.	1899	E. F. Williams
Arthrosporium compositum Ellis	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Bidens cernua L.	1899	E. F. Williams
Elatine americana (Pursh) Arn.	1899	not recorded
Fuirena pumila (Torr.) Spreng.	1899	E. F. Williams
Galium tinctorium (L.) Scop.	1899	not recorded
Menispora libertiana Sacc. & Roum. ex Sacc.	1899	Rorer	East Billerica
Araiospora pulchra Thaxt.	1900	Thaxter, R.	Stony Brook
Boletus frostii J.L.Russell	1900	A. W. Flint
Polygala sanguinea L.	1900	E. F. Williams
Alabama argillacea (Hübner, 1823)	1930	not recorded	Lowell

All 510 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 32 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 32 workings within 5 miles of Middlesex Village: 17 past producers, 11 producers, 4 plants. 15 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Graphite. 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
Dracut Deposit	Cobalt, Nickel	Past Producer	1876, 1939
Avaco Corp--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Stackpole Fibers Co--Lowell, Ma.	Graphite	Plant
Chelmsford Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Plant
Dracut Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Essex Bituminous Concrete Products	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
West Chelmsford Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Fletcher Westford Quarry	Granite	Producer
Forest Road Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Guilmette Bros Granite	Granite	Past Producer	Granite

Every working 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
Princeton Village	0.6 miles	48
Highlands	0.6 miles	48
Westlands	1.4 miles	41
Lowell	1.6 miles	48
Pawtucketville	1.9 miles	48
North Chelmsford	1.9 miles	50
Ayres City	2.0 miles	48
Bleachery	2.3 miles	48

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.

Wikidata item Q122599042

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 611839. 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.