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

Newtonville, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Newton City. It lies in ZIP code area 02460. It stands on Mount Ida. The Survey maps it on the Newton quadrangle.

Newtonville within Middlesex 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 Newtonville, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Newtonville, 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 Newton city, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 - Newton City

Newton

JbIj^ 1700, M. 63. Capt. Noab, of Newton, an Officer in the Expedition against Canada. Killed in battle with the Freoch and Indians July C, 1C90. M. 50, leaving t son Thomas. Ebeneser, oC Newton, died June 21, 1691. .fi. 45. ... . . J. B. Jepson, Newton Comer, rereals many gravestones whose inscriptions are no longer l^ble, and others, recalling the names which filled a laige place in the early history of the town, and Belonged to the founders of its institutions and the authors of its prosperity.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

124,955 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 Newton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

As the times grew more threatening, the selectmen were authorized to procure fire-arms for those who were too poor to furnish them. John Pigeon gave the town two field-pieces, which were accepted by the town with thanks, and a vote was passed, January 2, 1775, to raise a company of thirty -two minute-men, who were to meet half a day every week through the winter for drill, and every man was to be paid for his time the sum of eightpence, or, as afterwards stated, one shilling, and the eight ofGcers eight shillings per day " over and above i the shilling each."

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

The late Marshall S. Rice, Esq., for twentyseven years the town-clerk of Newton, and holdmg office when the town obtained incorporation as the city of Newton, came into Newton Centre, in 1824., and established a jirivate school for boys, in which more than a thousand pupils received a portion, either greater or less, of their education. His residence and school were on Centre Street, in the mansion formerly the estate of Henry Gibbs, Esq., from whom Gibbs Street receives its name, nearly opposite the first parish meeting-house. In this ancient house the ordaining council of ministers and delegates met and dined together on the occasion of the ordination of Rev. Dr. Homer, February 14, 178^. The apple-trees in the orchard north of Mr. Rice's house were raised from the seeds planted by his own hands, and the two fine maples in front of the house were brought by him in his chaise-box, when they were sajjlings of a foot in height, from New Ipswich, New Hampshire. Mr. Rice died February 'l^, 1879, aged seventyeight years and eight months, - a man universally resjiccted and lamented.

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

In the year 1830 an academy was commenced at Newton Centre, under a board of nine trustees. The land occupied by the academy building on Centre Street, nearly opposite Grafton Street, and now occupied as a dwelling-house, was given to the board of trustees for that purpose by Marshall S. Rice, Esq. An addition was made to the estate in 1831, by purchase, for the purpose of erecting a boarding-house. This was a flourishing school for many years. The first preceptor was Mr. Elbridge Hosmer, who w-as followed in succession by Messrs. Ebenezer Woodward, Rev. John B. Hague, Bartholomew Wood, and Rev. E. H. Barstow, who was the last teacher. After this the academy building was sold for a private residence. The boardinghouse, in 1806, became the seat of a home and school for young girls, orphans and others, rescued from the haunts of vice in the neighboring city of Boston. This benevolent institution was, in all its history, under the charge of Mrs. Rebecca B. Pomeroy, an efficient, self-denying, and faithful friend and ministering angel in the military hospitals of Washington during the civil war, and specially in the home of the chief magistrate of the nation, Abraham Lincoln. On a Sabbath afternoon, June 11', 1868, one of the inmates of the house set fire to the building, and it was burned to ashes, and the site has remained unoccupied till the present time. The Home was reorganized in the house formerly owned and occupied by Mr. Ei)hraini Jackson, southeast of the Theological Institution, and continued till 187:2, when it was disbanded. Four little orphan girls, members of this institution, became the nucleus of tiic Orphans' Home, established on Church Street, Newton, in November, 1872, and which afterwards was removed to the Episcopal parsonage, which was purchased for its use.

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 Newton City - it names this place 38 more 38 times.

Fires near this place

89 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Newtonville between 2003 and 2020, burning about 378 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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 ceremony43
Missing data/not specified/undetermined27
Debris and open burning9
Smoking4
Arson/incendiarism3
Other causes1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
8 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWELLESLEY
21 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 2,578 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,578 specimens collected within 10 miles of Newtonville between 1898 and 1975: 1,279 Animalia, 700 Plantae, 530 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 17 Bacteria, 14 Chromista, 9 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, 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 Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 18221900not recordedWayland
Specimen of Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Antennaria howellii, not of this specimenAntennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer1898Williams, E.F.
A photograph of the species Antennaria parlinii, not of this specimenAntennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Antennaria plantaginifolia, not of this specimenAntennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Aquilegia canadensis, not of this specimenAquilegia canadensis L.1898M. I. GunnNatick
A photograph of the species Acanthis flammea, not of this specimenAcanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE
A photograph of the species Acer carpinifolium, not of this specimenAcer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Acer palmatum, not of this specimenAcer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Agaricus brunnescens, not of this specimenAgaricus brunnescens Peck1900Morris, G. E.Waltham

All 2,578 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Newtonville: 4 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium). 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
Nrc Inc--Newton, Ma.Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium)Plant
Massachusetts Broken Stone CoStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Weston MineStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Burton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

3 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Newtonville in 3 storm reports between 2017 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind. 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 2017Thunderstorm WindNewtonville$15,000At 647 PM EST, trees were reported down on Lake Avenue in Newton. A tree was also reported down on wires on Lowell Avenue, and a tree was down on a car at Anthony Circle. Trees and wires were down on Fordham Road. A tree was blocking the road near 73 Blake Street.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindNewtonville$800In Waltham, a tree was down on wires on Ripley Street.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindNewtonville-In Waltham, there was a tree down on a car on High St.

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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Nonantum0.9 miles46
Newton Corner0.9 miles46
Newton0.9 miles46
North Village1.1 miles46
Bemis1.3 miles46
Newton Center1.4 miles46
West Newton1.5 miles46
Watertown1.8 miles46

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612352. 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.