Tatnuck, Massachusetts
45 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Worcester City. It lies in ZIP code area 01602. It lies near Moreland Hill. The Survey maps it on the Worcester North quadrangle.
Then and now
1885 to 1989The same ground, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Tatnuck
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 3 records
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Liberty FarmNational Historic Landmark · listed 1974 · 0.6 miles away
Chamberlain-Flagg Houselisted 1980 · 0.8 miles away
George Gabriel Houselisted 1980 · 0.9 miles away
Topographic sheets covering this place
19 surveys from 45 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.
- 1885 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500
- 1886 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500
- 1892 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:62500, 10 printings
- 1908 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1934 USGS Worcester quadrangle1:24000
- 1939 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:31680, 5 printings
- 1943 USGS Quinsigamond quadrangle1:125000
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1960 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1974 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:24000
- 1974 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000
- 1975 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000
- 1983 USGS Worcester North quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
37,512 words on this townshipHistory of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889 names this settlement in its chapter on Worcester City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Kettle Brook rises in Paxton, is fed by Lynde and Parsons Brooks, flows in a southerly direction and joins the Ramshorn stream, as above stated ; the united streams, known as French River, flow in a northeasterly direetion. At New Worcester, Tatnuck and Beaver or Turkey Brooka unite with French. Kiver, and the course becomes a little south of east. At this point the stream is known as Middle River for about a mile; Mill Brook then joins it, and from this point the river is known as the Blackstone.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.
Tatnuck Brook has a water-shed of eight thousand nine hundred and forty-three acres. Upon an old map, published in 1784, a trip hamaier-'mill, a cornmill and a saw-mill are found upon Tatnuck Brook within the limits of the town of Worcester. The first mill recollected by those now living is a sawmill in Holden, owned by a man named Hall; this was prior to 18-50. The second pi'ivilege was near the outlet of the present reservoir, where there was another saw-mill.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., published 1889.
The third privilege was at Tatnuck. The fourth privilege was the old mill built in 1834 for David T. Brigham, in Tatnuck, near the bridge on the road to New Worcester ; it is now used for making satinets. It was built by William T. Merrifield in 1834. The fifth privilege was Patch's saw and gristmills.
Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts : with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men., 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 Worcester City - it names this place 2 more 2 times.
Fires near this place
55 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Tatnuck between 2015 and 2020, burning about 56 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 19 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 10 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 14 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 14 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 24 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 7 June 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 June 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 June 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 1,595 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,595 specimens collected within 10 miles of Tatnuck between 1839 and 1974: 943 Plantae, 355 Animalia, 273 Fungi, 16 Unrecorded, 6 Protozoa, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A E WOODHEAD, A. A. Eaton, A. B. Seymour 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon | 1899 | H. H. Scudder | |
![]() | Pooecetes gramineus gramineus (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) | 1900 | Roscoe I. Giles | |
![]() | Ochrolechia tartarea (L.) A.Massal. | 1839 | E. Tuckerman | |
![]() | Carex laxiflora Lam. | 1840 | Thomas Nuttall | Cambridge. |
![]() | Carex vestita Willd. | 1840 | Thomas Nuttall | Cambridge. |
![]() | Mycobilimbia hypnorum (Lib.) Kalb & Hafellner | 1848 | E. Tuckerman | |
![]() | Tamias striatus lysteri (Richardson, 1829) | 1848 | L Agassiz | PARSONS ISLAND |
![]() | Cladonia cornucopioides F.Wilson | 1850 | J. L. Russell | Leicester |
![]() | Geranium maculatum L. | 1850 | not recorded | |
![]() | Packera aurea (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve | 1850 | not recorded | |
| Elymus repens (L.) Gould | 1892 | Arthur B. Seymour | Cambridge. | |
| Festuca pratensis Huds. | 1892 | Arthur B. Seymour | Cambridge. |
All 1,595 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Tatnuck: 4 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Stone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bd Bloomfield Co--Worcester, Ma. | Lead | Plant | ||
| Shrewsbury Trap Rock | Stone | Producer | ||
| Capa Corporation | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Elmwood Street Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| F Ang G Sand and Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| F and G Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Trulson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Wachusetts Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salisbury Heights | 0.8 miles | 45 | |
| Camp Kinneywood | 1.2 miles | 45 | |
| Westwood Hills | 1.2 miles | 45 | |
| West Tatnuck | 1.2 miles | 45 | |
| Mill Street | 1.2 miles | 45 | |
| June Street | 1.3 miles | 45 | |
| Westchester | 1.6 miles | 45 | |
| Swan Avenue | 1.7 miles | 45 |
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 Q122552994 | The 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 610562. 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.




























