Sturbridge, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 98 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1985

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 3 records

• Sturbridge Common Historic Districtlisted 1977
• Tantiusques Reservationlisted 1983
• Oliver Wight Houselisted 1982

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

• Oliver Wight House, State Route 131, Sturbridgefederal building survey, 16 photographs

Sturbridge grew from 2,253 to 2,385 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

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 Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1890 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
• 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
• 1915 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1921 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
• 1943 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
• 1945 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1952 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1952 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
• 1967 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
• 1967 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000
• 1975 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000
• 1982 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Sturbridge 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 30 fires within 5 miles of Sturbridge between 2015 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 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.

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:

• Old Sturbridge Village
• Robinson Crusoe Camp
• Snellville (historical)
• Westville
• Fiskdale
• Globe Village

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 335 specimens collected within 10 miles of Sturbridge between 1874 and 1975: 172 Plantae, 92 Animalia, 70 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. F. Hill, H. St. John, G.S. Torrey, A. R. Hodgdon; L. B. Smith, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele 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
	Carex tenera var. tenera	1899	R. M. Harper
	Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W.	1874	Piper, S. M.
	Dendroica petechia aestiva (J.F.Gmelin, 1789)	1882	G.L.	Warren
	Sphagnum tenellum (Schimp.) H.Klinggr.	1889	Edwin Faxon	Hammond's Pond
	Gavia immer (Brunnich, 1764)	1890	Jones, Clinton Mellen	Southbridge
	Diphyscium foliosum (Hedw.) D.Mohr	1891	Lucien M. Underwood
	Lycaenidae	1894	not recorded
	Cirsium muticum Michx.	1897	E. L. Morris	Charlton
	Juncus tenuis Willd.	1897	E. L. Morris	Charlton
	Apocynum androsaemifolium L.	1898	E. L. Morris	Wales
	Asclepias purpurascens L.	1898	E. L. Morris	Wales
	Alyssum alyssoides (L.) L.	1899	R. M. Harper

All 335 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 Sturbridge: 7 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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 Sturbridge in 8 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. 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.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610150. 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.