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

North Brookfield, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in North Brookfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 01535. It stands on Walnut Hill. The Survey maps it on the North Brookfield quadrangle. 2,256 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 873 feet above sea level.

North Brookfield within Worcester County

Population over time

2 figures

North Brookfield fell from 2,265 to 2,256 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,265
20202,256-9 (-0%)

Then and now

1887 to 1985

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 North Brookfield, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of North Brookfield, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

32 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

3 photographs, 1938

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.

New England hurricane. Apple orchard near North Brookfield, Massachusetts. This orchard has seven thousand trees and eighty-five percent of them went down
New England hurricane. Apple orchard near North Brookfield, Massachusetts. This orchard has seven thousand trees and eighty-five percent of them went down
Dick, Sheldon, photographer, 1938. Library of Congress
New England hurricane. Pine wood lot near North Brookfield, Massachusetts
New England hurricane. Pine wood lot near North Brookfield, Massachusetts
Dick, Sheldon, photographer, 1938. Library of Congress
Captain John Potter House, Exposition Grounds (moved from North Brookfield, MA), West Springfield, Hampden County, MA
Captain John Potter House, Exposition Grounds (moved from North Brookfield, MA), West Springfield, Hampden County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

74 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 74 fires within 5 miles of North Brookfield between 2015 and 2020, burning about 52 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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 burning22
Recreation and ceremony22
Arson/incendiarism8
Smoking7
Equipment and vehicle use6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
2 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 July 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 July 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 June 2016Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
22 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 May 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 386 shown

Museums hold 386 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Brookfield between 1850 and 1975: 203 Plantae, 100 Animalia, 81 Fungi, 2 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. Lavallee 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 Carex tenera var. teneraCarex tenera var. tenera1899R. M. Harper
A photograph of the species Cladonia cornucopioides, not of this specimenCladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson1850J. L. RussellLeicester
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1858J. BlakeWare
A photograph of the species Celastrus scandens, not of this specimenCelastrus scandens L.1858s.coll.
A photograph of the species Adiantum pedatum, not of this specimenAdiantum pedatum L.1866Collector(s): Elizabeth Emerson Atwater; Preparator(s): Alex LorenzLeicester
A photograph of the species Athyrium filix-femina, not of this specimenAthyrium filix-femina (L.) Roth1866Collector(s): Elizabeth Emerson Atwater; Preparator(s): Alex LorenzLeicester
A photograph of the species Dennstaedtia punctilobula, not of this specimenDennstaedtia punctilobula (Michx.) T.Moore1866Collector(s): Elizabeth Emerson Atwater; Preparator(s): Alex LorenzLeicester
A photograph of the species Cladonia squamosa, not of this specimenCladonia squamosa Hoffm.1870M.E.T.Hardwick
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1894G. E. SternLake Lashaway
Calyptospora goeppertiana J.G.Kühn1895not recordedUS, Massachusetts, Barre
Vaccinium corymbosum L.1895not recordedUS, Massachusetts, Barre
Calosoma calidum (Fabricius, 1775)1896Knab, Frederick (1865-1918)Massachusetts

All 386 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

1 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of North Brookfield: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Highway PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

5 since 2014

The National Weather Service names North Brookfield in 5 storm reports between 2014 and 2023: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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 2023Tornado (EF0)North Brookfield$7,000A NWS survey determined at an EF-0 tornado, with maximum estimated peak wind of 80 mph, touched down in North Brookfield at 1056 AM EDT. There were no injuries or damage to homes in the area. There were several eyewitnesses to the tornado, although none of them saw an actual funnel. One eyewitness was in an auto body shop and reported strong winds making the garage door bow inward. Another eyewitness, the Fire Chief of North Brookfield, saw debris lofted into the air. A third eyewitness described chaotic swirling as the tornado passed by. The tornado is estimated to have touched down a little east of the North Brookfield Waste Water Center. It traveled about 2 miles to the northeast, although not on the ground continuously, and ended a little east of the intersection of Ryan Road and Hillsville Road. The damage was limited to trees, with the most concentrated damage area along Ryan Road, slightly north of the Ward Street intersection.
August 2014Flash FloodNorth Brookfield$3,000Gilbert Street was flooded and impassable. Flood waters extended into a home.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindNorth Brookfield$1,800In North Brookfield, a tree was down on Route 148 near Brooks Pond Road. Also, a large tree was down on power lines on Hillsville Road.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindNorth Brookfield$1,000A large tree branch on School Street was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindNorth Brookfield$500In North Brookfield, a tree was down on Ayers Street. Report relayed by amateur radio.

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
East Brookfield3.3 miles33
West Brookfield3.8 miles34
Brookfield3.8 miles33
Hillsville3.8 miles32
New Braintree4.1 miles30
Marks Garrison4.6 miles34
Lower Wire Village4.7 miles42
South Spencer4.9 miles33

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 North BrookfieldAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7054303The 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 609951. 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.