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South Fitchburg, Massachusetts

42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Fitchburg City. It lies in ZIP code area 01420. It lies near Pine Hill. The Survey maps it on the Fitchburg quadrangle.

South Fitchburg within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1988

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.

Topographic sheet of South Fitchburg, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of South Fitchburg, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

20 surveys from 42 printed 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

34,814 words on this township

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Fitchburg City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

They accordingly purchased a piece of land in the southeastern part of the town, on the road to Leominster (now Water Street in South Fitchburg) and it has been used as a poor-farm since that time. In April of the next year it was voted to change the name of poor-house to that of work-house. May 5, 1828, it was voted " to build a reservoir for water on the common, with two pumps, at an expense not exceeding $50."

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

The town was now thoroughly awake on the subject of education. During the year ending March 1, 1850, over two thousand dollars were e.tpended for new school-houses in South Fitchburg and Crockerville and the addition to the Academy building, and about eleven hundred dollars for painting and repairing the old houses. The annual appropriation had risen to about four thousand dollars.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

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 Fitchburg City.

Fires near this place

181 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 181 fires within 5 miles of South Fitchburg between 2015 and 2020, burning about 109 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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 burning78
Missing data/not specified/undetermined63
Smoking26
Recreation and ceremony6
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Fireworks3
Arson/incendiarism1
Natural1

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
8 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
7 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
24 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.4 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMONOOSNOC HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 862 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 862 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Fitchburg between 1870 and 1974: 341 Animalia, 330 Plantae, 173 Fungi, 9 Unrecorded, 6 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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 Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff.1895James F. CollinsSouth spur, Mount Wachusett
Specimen of Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.ClausenAthyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen1900DavenportPine Hill; Medford
A photograph of the species Carex maritima, not of this specimenCarex maritima Gunnerus1870J. W. CongdonWellville
A photograph of the species Hylesinus aculeatus, not of this specimenHylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 18241872unknownFitchburg
A photograph of the species Carex foenea, not of this specimenCarex foenea Willd.1878W. BoottWachusett Mountain
A photograph of the species Sibbaldiopsis tridentata, not of this specimenSibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb.1879Bailey, W.W.summit of Mt. Wachusett
A photograph of the species Papaver orientale, not of this specimenPapaver orientale L.1880unknownTownsend.
A photograph of the species Hypericum gentianoides, not of this specimenHypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.1881Fredrick L SargentLunenburg
Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.1881T. F. AllenNashua River
Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats.1892W. B. Hosmer
A photograph of the species Moneses uniflora, not of this specimenMoneses uniflora (L.) A.Gray1893J. F. Collins
Phyllosticta kalmicola (Schwein.) Ellis & Everh.1894H. L. Jones

All 862 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of South Fitchburg: 4 past producers, 2 occurrences, 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lithium, Tin, Tin, Lithium, Geothermal. 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
Fitchburg AreaTin, LithiumOccurrence
Keating Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
LeominsterLithium, TinOccurrence1824
Leominster PitGeothermalPast Producer
Luenburg PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
P J KeatingSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Szocik PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Tanzio Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working 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
Fitchburg1.7 miles42
West Leominster1.7 miles42
Whalom2.0 miles44
North Leominster2.9 miles44
Leominster3.0 miles42
West Fitchburg3.2 miles42
Wachusett Station3.3 miles42
Waites Corner3.6 miles42

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 Q122563103The 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 610415. 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.