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

Northside, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Charlton town. It lies in ZIP code area 01507. It stands on Brackett Hill. The Survey maps it on the Leicester quadrangle.

Northside within Worcester County

Then and now

1889 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Northside, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Northside, surveyed 1889

Topographic sheets covering this place

42 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.

Fires nearby

29 since 2016

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Northside between 2016 and 2020, burning about 11 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 burning13
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Smoking4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Recreation and ceremony2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Other causes1

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
24 July 2016Debris and open burning1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
16 July 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 June 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 June 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 May 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 May 2020Equipment 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 1,262 shown

Museums hold 1,262 specimens collected within 10 miles of Northside between 1839 and 1975: 755 Plantae, 296 Animalia, 193 Fungi, 15 Unrecorded, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour et al. 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 Ochrolechia tartarea, not of this specimenOchrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal.1839E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Carex laxiflora, not of this specimenCarex laxiflora Lam.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Carex vestita, not of this specimenCarex vestita Willd.1840Thomas NuttallCambridge.
A photograph of the species Mycobilimbia hypnorum, not of this specimenMycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner1848E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Cladonia cornucopioides, not of this specimenCladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson1850J. L. RussellLeicester
A photograph of the species Carex aperta, not of this specimenCarex aperta Boott1853W. BoottMassachusetts
A photograph of the species Cladrastis tinctoria, not of this specimenCladrastis tinctoria Raf.1856AnonymousCambridge.
Opegrapha varia Pers.1856E. Tuckerman
A photograph of the species Coleataenia rigidula, not of this specimenColeataenia rigidula (Bosc ex Nees) LeBlond1858AnonymousCambridge.
Elymus repens (L.) Gould1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.
Festuca pratensis Huds.1892Arthur B. SeymourCambridge.

All 1,262 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Northside: 7 past producers, 3 producers. 3 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Lyford Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Old Webster Road PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Oxford PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Oxford Quarry Plant #8Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Ricciardi Asphalt CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Robbins Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Scavone Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Scavone Construction CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Southbridge PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Wiley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

1 since 2025

The National Weather Service names Northside in 1 storm report between 2025 and 2025: 1 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
May 2025Thunderstorm WindNorthside$300In Charlton, a tree was down near Gould Rd.

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
Dodge1.1 miles42
Camp Bement1.2 miles42
Charlton Depot1.5 miles42
Morseville1.6 miles42
Richardson Corners1.8 miles42
Glen Grove Annex1.8 miles42
Glen Heights2.2 miles42
Glen Grove2.2 miles42

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610380. 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.