Reservoir, Massachusetts
46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Brookline town. It lies in ZIP code area 02445. It lies near Fisher Hill. The Survey maps it on the Newton quadrangle.
Then and now
1893 to 1989The 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.


On record in Reservoir
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register within a mile 12 of 23 shown
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Reservoir ParkNational Historic Landmark · listed 1985 · 0.8 miles away
Strathmore Road Historic Districtlisted 1985 · 0.1 miles away
House at 83 Penniman Placelisted 1985 · 0.2 miles away
House at 12-16 Corey Roadlisted 1985 · 0.4 miles away
Kilsyth Terracelisted 1985 · 0.5 miles away
Fisher Hill Reservoir and Gatehouselisted 1990 · 0.5 miles away
Fisher Hill Historic Districtlisted 1985 · 0.5 miles away
Beaconsfield Terraces Historic Districtlisted 1985 · 0.6 miles away
Timothy Corey House No. 1listed 1985 · 0.7 miles away
Timothy Corey House No. 2listed 1985 · 0.7 miles away
Charles Heath Houselisted 1985 · 0.7 miles away
Ebenezer Heath Houselisted 1985 · 0.7 miles away
Topographic sheets covering this place
17 surveys from 46 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500, 13 printings
- 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
- 1944 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
- 1946 USGS Newton quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1956 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:24000
- 1970 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
- 1977 USGS Newton quadrangle1:25000
- 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Boston South quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Brookline town. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Thomas
"T shall be able to begin to travel home slowly in about 10 days, and shall, with the blessing of God, soon see you all. After being wounded I walked back to my tent, and in about an hour had only one arm, a circumstance which does not afflict me, my dear father, and must not you. But let us both thank God that he has so formed us that you have lived almost all your life happy & respectable, notwithstanding the loss of an eye, and I may spend the remainder of my life in the same manner with the loss of a limb, of all the most conveniently spared.
In the county-history sources
53,501 words on this townshipHistory of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Brookline Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Reading Academy (Wakefield); entered Waterville College with the class of 1835, and became a tutor in that institution. Ordained at Gloucester, Mass., June 7, 1837. Resigned his pastoral charge July, 1839, and took a two years' course of study in the Newton Theological Institution.
Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.
| its source in the northeasterly corner of Brighton District, and then running northerly across Brighton Avenue and the Albany Railroad, it empties into This forms the boundary line between Brookline and Brighton at the extreme northwest corner.
Passage source: History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884.
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 Brookline Town - it names this place 1 more 1 time.
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.
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
62 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 62 fires within 5 miles of Reservoir between 2003 and 2020, burning about 369 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 ceremony | 36 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | NEEDHAM |
| 3 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | NEEDHAM |
| 23 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 23 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | WELLESLEY |
| 21 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | NEEDHAM |
| 2 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | BROOKLINE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 13,256 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 13,256 specimens collected within 10 miles of Reservoir between 1810 and 1975: 5,377 Plantae, 3,943 Fungi, 3,462 Animalia, 193 Protozoa, 177 Chromista, 71 Unrecorded, 33 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, ? ex Herb. W.G. Farlow, A C Gibson 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 | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Araiospora pulchra Thaxt. | 1900 | R. Thaxter | Stony Brook |
![]() | Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald | 1900 | A. P. Chute | |
![]() | Thalictrum L. | 1810 | Boott, J.W. | Near Boston. |
![]() | Anemone L. | 1815 | Boott, J. | Andover Turnpike, 7 miles from Boston. |
![]() | Corydalis Vent. | 1815 | Boott, F.M.B. | Worcester turnpike, 6 miles from Boston. |
![]() | Corylus L. | 1815 | not recorded | Cambridge Port, 2 miles from Boston. |
| Ericaceae | 1815 | Boott | Boston, U.S.A. | |
![]() | Hepatica Mill. | 1815 | Boott, F.M.B. | Sweet Auburn. |
![]() | Limonium vulgare Mill. | 1815 | not recorded | On Cragies Road [=near Cragies Bridge], 1 1/2 miles from Boston. |
![]() | Mollugo verticillata L. | 1815 | Boott, F.M.B. | Boston. |
![]() | Nuphar Sm. | 1815 | Boott, J.W. | Worcester Turnpike 6 miles from Boston. |
![]() | Persicaria (L.) Mill. | 1815 | Boott, J.W. | Craigie's Road, 2 miles from Boston. |
All 13,256 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Reservoir: 8 plants, 1 unknown, 1 past producer. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Tantalum. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C. J. Mabardy | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Nrc Inc--Newton, Ma. | Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium) | Plant | ||
| West Roxbury Crushed Stone Operatio | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Whittemore Prdts Inc--Boston | Perlite | Plant | ||
| (Facility) Cambridge Smelter Co | Lead | Plant | ||
| General Metals & Smelting--Boston | Lead | Plant | ||
| Industrial Serv. Centers--Cambridge | Iron | Plant | ||
| Somerville Smelting Co. | Lead | Plant | ||
| Us Steel Supply Div--Boston | Iron | Plant | ||
| Wheelock-Lovejoy--Cambridge, Ma. | Iron | Plant |
Storms near this place
2 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Reservoir in 2 storm reports between 2009 and 2020: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood. 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.
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beaconsfield | 0.4 miles | 46 | |
| Brookline | 1.5 miles | 46 | |
| Coolidge Corner | 1.5 miles | 46 | |
| Brookline Village | 1.7 miles | 46 | |
| Longwood Station | 2.1 miles | 46 | |
| Westbrook Village | 2.4 miles | 46 | |
| Riverdale | 4.6 miles | 46 | |
| Dedham Island | 4.9 miles | 46 |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 607200. 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.



























