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

North Woburn, Massachusetts

41 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Woburn City. It lies in ZIP code area 01801. It stands on Willow Brook. The Survey maps it on the Wilmington quadrangle.

North Woburn 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 North Woburn, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of North Woburn, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

41 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

48,923 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 Woburn City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

1866. The meeting-house on the north side of tlie Common, built in 1840, was so far outgrown in 1860 by the increase of the society, that an enlargement or a new building became necessary. As the land for enlargement could not be easily obtained, it was voted to erect a new house of very much larger dimensions, and on the opposite side of the Common. The building was completed, and dedicated in October, 1861. Thcchurch is one of the largest and best-appointed houses of worship in the country. Its total cost was about §62,000. The audience-room is capable of seating fifteen hundred persons, and is beautiful both in form and decoration. After tiie resignation of Rev. Mr. Bodwell an invitation to the pastorate was extended to Rev. S. E. Dennen, who accepted, and was installed in 1868. Mr. Dennen was noted for his pulpit services, his sermons having those logical and compact qualities which are always attractive to the thinking part of every congregation. Mr. Dennen resigned in 1872. Rev. H. S. Kelsey was installed in his place. Occupying the pulpit three years, he retired from the position, and the pastorate was again offered to Rev. Daniel March, who had so acceptably ministered to the congregation some fifteen years before. Rev. Mr. March still retains his connection with the parisii. In 1846 the people of North Woburn felt the need of a church and society in that locality. At first the Sunday services were held in the school-house, under charge of Rev. Samuel Sewall. The society increasing, a meeting-house was built in 1849, and a church formed, consisting mostly of persons who transferred their membership from the First Parish. Rev. Samuel Sewall continued as pastor till 1852, when he resigned. His successor was Rev. George T. Dole, who remained three years. Rev. Swift Byington and Rev. M. G. Wheeler followed. The present pastor. Rev. W. C. Anderson, was settled in 1873.

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 Woburn City.

Fires near this place

37 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 37 fires within 5 miles of North Woburn between 2015 and 2020, burning about 22 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.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15
Debris and open burning	10
Recreation and ceremony	7
Arson/incendiarism	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
22 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
20 August 2017	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	WINCHESTER
13 August 2020	Arson/incendiarism	2.5 acres	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	GRINDING ROCK HILL FIRE
21 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
13 July 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
9 June 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 June 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 June 2020	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 1,483 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,483 specimens collected within 10 miles of North Woburn between 1898 and 1975: 657 Animalia, 499 Plantae, 287 Fungi, 17 Bacteria, 9 Unrecorded, 9 Protozoa, 5 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, A B. Proper 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
Trientalis borealis Raf.	1900	A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.	1898	Collector unspecified
Cantharellus infundibuliformis (Scop.) Fr.	1898	not recorded	Melrose.
Cladonia coccifera (L.) Willd.	1898	Francis P Daniels	Cambridge
Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber	1898	Francis P Daniels	Arlington Heights
Cordyceps capitata (Holmsk.) Link	1898	Conant, [?] F.	Middlesex Fells
Ctenidium malacodes Mitt.	1898	not recorded
Cucurbitaria elongata (Fr.) Grev.	1898	J. G. Hall
Acer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Acer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.	1900	A. K. Harrison	Harvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Agaricus brunnescens Peck	1900	Morris, G. E.	Waltham
Aphanochaete repens A.Braun	1900	F. S. Collins	Middlesex Fells, Wright's Pond, on Oedogonium, etc.

All 1,483 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of North Woburn: 10 past producers, 4 producers, 3 plants. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Peat, Clay. 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
Austin Hastings--Woburn, Ma.	Iron	Plant
Dynamet Tech--Burlington, Ma.	Titanium	Plant
Ferro Ceramic Grinding--Wakefield	Silica	Plant
Mahoney:S Rocky Ledge	Peat	Past Producer	Peat
Rocky Ledge Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Marlborough Plant/Polishing Plates	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Roma Stone Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Burlington S & G Co., Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Burlington Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
D R Raymond	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

11 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names North Woburn in 11 storm reports between 2007 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flood, 1 lightning. 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 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	North Woburn	$25,000	Large trees and power lines were downed by thunderstorm winds, causing several road closures. Wires were downed on a roof on Conn Street. A phone pole on Marlboro Road was downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2008	Flood	North Woburn	$15,000	Heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Hanna ranged from 2.28 inches to 3.64 inches. This resulted in flooding of the Woburn Police Department garage. Newspapers reported that as many as ten vehicles were towed from flood waters on Route 9 under the 126 overpass. This is a frequent problem in Framingham when it rains.
September 2007	Lightning	North Woburn	$12,000	Wires were reported down due to a lightning strike.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	North Woburn	$5,000	Multiple tree limbs and wires on Main Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	North Woburn	$1,000	In Woburn, several large trees were down.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	North Woburn	$1,000	A large tree limb was downed onto Washington Street by thunderstorm winds.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	North Woburn	$500	In Woburn, a tree was down on Wright St.
September 2022	Flood	North Woburn	-	In Woburn, Olympia Ave. at Wheeling Ave. was flooded and impassable. Police also reported a nearby parking lot was flooded and closed.
June 2008	Hail	North Woburn	-	Quarter sized hail fell near Route 128 Exit 36.
July 2016	Hail	North Woburn	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	North Woburn	-	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 Wilmington	0.5 miles	41
Mishawum	1.0 miles	41
Central Square	1.2 miles	46
Winnmere	1.6 miles	46
Walnut Hill	1.8 miles	46
Burlington	2.0 miles	41
Woburn	2.0 miles	46
Cummingsville	2.1 miles	46

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 Q122555602

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 612222. 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.