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

South Lawrence, Massachusetts

38 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Lawrence City. It lies in ZIP code area 01843. It stands on Spicket River. The Survey maps it on the Lawrence quadrangle.

South Lawrence within Essex County

Then and now

1886 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 102 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 Lawrence, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet of South Lawrence, surveyed 1886

Topographic sheets covering this place

38 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

87 since 2002

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 87 fires within 5 miles of South Lawrence between 2002 and 2020, burning about 23 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 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
Smoking	20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	18
Debris and open burning	13
Misuse of fire by a minor	8
Recreation and ceremony	7
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Arson/incendiarism	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	4
Natural	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
24 September 2020	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 September 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
14 September 2020	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
14 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	NORTH ANDOVER
8 August 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	LAWERANCE
8 August 2016	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	LAWERANCE
8 August 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	LAWERANCE
5 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	METHUEN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,264 shown

Museums hold 1,264 specimens collected within 10 miles of South Lawrence between 1816 and 1975: 722 Plantae, 404 Animalia, 120 Fungi, 5 Protozoa, 5 Bacteria, 4 Unrecorded, 4 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Brown, A S Gaunt, A. C. Mathieson 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.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Corylus americana Walter	1900	E. F. Williams
Populus grandidentata Michx.	1900	E. F. Williams
Lupinus L.	1816	Boott, F.M.B.	Mystic Pond, 6 miles from Boston.
Viola labradorica Schrank	1816	not recorded	Andover Turnpike, 6 miles from Boston U.S.A.
Diphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr	1822	ALCOTT
Arcyria oerstedii Rostaf., 1875	1826	F. A. Gilbert
Eleocharis robbinsii Oakes	1829	B. D. Greene
Carex debilis var. rudgei L.H.Bailey	1853	Collector unknown
Carex rostrata Stokes	1853	W. Boott
Cyathus striatus Willd.	1853	not recorded	Andover, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Dichelyma capillaceum (Dicks.) Myrin	1853	T. P. James
Isopterygiopsis pulchella (Hedw.) Z.Iwats.	1853	T. P. James

All 1,264 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

7 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of South Lawrence: 4 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper, Perlite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Dracut Ni Mine/Nickel Mine Hill	Nickel, Gold, Silver, Copper	Past Producer
Wittemore Perlite Plant	Perlite	Plant
Rocco Zambino and Sons, Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand & Gravel Operation	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Torromeo Trucking Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Torromeo Trucking Co., Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms nearby

11 since 2009

The National Weather Service names South Lawrence in 11 storm reports between 2009 and 2025: 4 flood, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	South Lawrence	$50,000	In Lawrence, trees were downed on Winthrop Avenue, Essex Street, Everett Street, and Methuen Street. A tree fell onto a house on Furber Street and another on Melvin Street. In North Andover, a large tree was downed on Boston Road near Route 114 and on Main Street. Damage was a little more extensive in Andover, where many trees were downed on the south side of town including on Vine Street. Trees and wires were downed on Bridle Path Road.
July 2009	Lightning	South Lawrence	$50,000	Lightning struck a house on Fossen Way setting it on fire.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	South Lawrence	$25,000	Many large trees on North Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2017	Flood	South Lawrence	$10,000	At 455 PM EST, an amateur radio operator reported Chickering Road at State Route 114 in South Lawrence was flooded. A car nearby on Halsey Street was trapped in flood waters. At 524 PM EST a car was disabled in street flooding at Cutler Avenue and Chickering Road. Grafton Street was flooded and impassable.
October 2011	Flood	South Lawrence	$5,000	Several streets were closed due to flooding. A car was stuck in floodwaters at the intersection of Andover Street and South Broadway near the Walgreens.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	South Lawrence	$800	In Lawrence, a tree and power lines were down on Leonard Avenue.
August 2025	Flash Flood	South Lawrence	-	There were cars stuck in significant street flooding near the Lawrence and Andover town line.
October 2022	Flood	South Lawrence	-	In Lawrence, police reported street flooding on Andover Street between Clifron and Amherst Streets. The road was flooded and impassable. Report relayed by amateur radio.
November 2018	Flood	South Lawrence	-	In Lawrence, there were flooded streets at Water Street and Marble Avenue.
September 2018	Flash Flood	South Lawrence	-	At 9:43 AM EST, the intersection of Andover Street at Clifton Street in Lawrence was flooded and impassable.
July 2009	Hail	South Lawrence	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Essex 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Mount Vernon Park	0.9 miles	38
Lawrence	0.9 miles	38
North Andover	1.0 miles	38
Shawsheen Heights	1.4 miles	38
Shawsheen Village	1.7 miles	38
Stevens Crossing	2.3 miles	40
North Andover Center	2.4 miles	40
West Andover	2.4 miles	38

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612386. 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.