Royalston, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1988

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 1 record

• Royalston Common Historic Districtlisted 1976

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.

• 1887 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:62500
• 1890 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:62500
• 1894 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
• 1932 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:48000
• 1935 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
• 1942 USGS Keene quadrangle1:125000
• 1946 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1954 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1954 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:31680
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1971 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1971 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1975 USGS Royalston quadrangle1:25000
• 1986 USGS Keene quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
• 1988 USGS Winchendon quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Royalston Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Royalston between 2010 and 2020, burning about 4 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Neale Place
• West Royalston
• Camp Caravan
• Athol
• Fryeville
• Pinedale

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 357 specimens collected within 10 miles of Royalston between 1856 and 1974: 168 Plantae, 132 Animalia, 57 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A., A. Morse, A. P. Morse 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
	Osmunda regalis L.	1900	Bates, J.A.	Royalston.
	Pyxine sorediata (Ach.) Mont.	1856	Charles C. Frost
	Veronica L.	1871	not recorded
	Drosera rotundifolia L.	1882	not recorded
	Linnaea borealis subsp. longiflora (Torrey) Hultén	1882	not recorded
	Moneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray	1882	M. A. M.	Winchendon
	Polygala paucifolia Willd.	1882	M. A. M.
	Utricularia vulgaris subsp. macrorhiza (Leconte) Clausen	1886	M., K. M.
	Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton	1886	not recorded
	Peltandra virginica (L.) Schott	1892	A.
	Rosa rubiginosa L.	1892	not recorded
	Carex scoparia Schkuhr ex Willd.	1896	W. Deane

All 357 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Royalston: 3 past producers, 3 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Mica, Talc-Soapstone, Mica, Feldspar, 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.

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Royalston in 8 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 heavy rain. 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.

Every storm recorded in Worcester County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 609707. 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.