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

Prescott Center, Massachusetts

32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1990. It stands in New Salem town. It lies in ZIP code area 01355. It stands on Prescott Hill. The Survey maps it on the Quabbin Reservoir quadrangle.

Prescott Center within Franklin County

Then and now

1887 to 1990

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Prescott Center, surveyed 1990
Topographic sheet of Prescott Center, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

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

1 photograph,

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.

Old Red Schoolhouse, Cooleyville Road, Prescott Center, Franklin County, MA
Old Red Schoolhouse, Cooleyville Road, Prescott Center, Franklin County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

5 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Prescott Center between 2004 and 2020, burning about 3 acres in total. 1 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
Recreation and ceremony2
Natural1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Debris and open burning1

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
20 August 2020Naturalunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlLITTLE QUABBIN ISLAND FIRE
4 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 April 2004Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
15 October 2016Recreation and ceremony1.5 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 6,638 shown

Museums hold 6,638 specimens collected within 10 miles of Prescott Center between 1781 and 1975: 3,234 Animalia, 1,685 Plantae, 1,525 Fungi, 123 Chromista, 62 Protozoa, 9 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Allen, A. B. Seymour, A. Buckman 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 Cercospora violae Sacc.Cercospora violae Sacc.1895Ralph E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College, Amherst
Specimen of Septoria petroselini Desm.Septoria petroselini Desm.1895R. E. SmithHothouse, Mass. Agr. College
Specimen of Bombus bimaculatus Cresson, 1863Bombus bimaculatus Cresson, 18631899[Not Stated]Hatch Experiment Station
A photograph of the species Carex argyrantha, not of this specimenCarex argyrantha Tuck. ex Dewey1781H. G. JesupAmherst in Hampshire Co., and Leverett in Franklin Co., Massachusetts. [Inferred counties from precise loc.]
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1781H. G. JesupAnd Leverett
A photograph of the species Ustilago nuda, not of this specimenUstilago nuda (C.N.Jensen) Kellerm. & Swingle1810J.E. Humphrey
A photograph of the species Ranunculus ambigens, not of this specimenRanunculus ambigens S.Watson1831S. Shurtleff
A photograph of the species Dactylis glomerata, not of this specimenDactylis glomerata L.1839S J Ewer
A photograph of the species Solidago arguta, not of this specimenSolidago arguta Aiton1841Collector(s): Henry Holmes Babcock, Henry Griswold JesupAmherst
A photograph of the species Phlebiella vaga, not of this specimenPhlebiella vaga (Fr.) P.Karst.1845Illegible collector name
A photograph of the species Elodea nuttallii, not of this specimenElodea nuttallii (Planch.) H.St.John1847H. G. Jesup
A photograph of the species Biatora sanguineoatra, not of this specimenBiatora sanguineoatra (Wulfen) Tuck.1848Tuckerman Edward

All 6,638 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

2 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Prescott Center: 1 past producer, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Asbestos, Emery, Iron. 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
Andrews MineIronOccurrence1871
Pelham QuarryAsbestos, EmeryPast Producer

Every working recorded in Franklin 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
Prescott (historical)0.0 miles32
Smiths (historical)4.4 miles32
North Prescott4.4 miles32
Cooleyville5.1 miles32
Baconville5.6 miles35
Shutesbury5.6 miles35
Millington (historical)6.3 miles32
Pratt Corner7.1 miles35

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 Q122562252The 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 606635. 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.