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

Taunton, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Taunton City. It lies in ZIP code area 02780. It stands on Mill River. The Survey maps it on the Taunton quadrangle. 59,408 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 30 feet above sea level.

Taunton within Bristol County

Population over time

2 figures

Taunton grew from 55,874 to 59,408 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. 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.

Year	People	Change
2010	55,874
2020	59,408	+3,534 (+6%)

Then and now

1885 to 1987

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 Taunton, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet of Taunton, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Taunton city, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 - Taunton City

The Weather

How all the people are enjoying this nice weather we are having! Real summer weather. But to the farmers, or some in certain lines of farming, this moderate weather is "not so good." These premature samples of springtime are unfortunate, especially for the peach orchardist. As every groWar knows, peach trees are susceptible to cold weather, and if it does grow very cold again, and there is every likelihood of it, there will be much wood killed and a very small fruit yield in our section this coming season.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

195,005 words on this township

History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Taunton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The Winslow Church. - The next church distinctively Congregational organized in Taunton was named, after the street where it worshiped, the Spring Street Church. Its membership of forty-four, with the exception of two from the West Taunton Church, came entirely from the Trinitarian Congregational Church, whose history has just been given. Its organization was in 1837, January 12th. S. Hopkins Emery, who studied at Amherst and Andover, was ordained and installed its first pastor Nov. 23, 1837, continuing in that relation until called to Bedford, January, 1841. Rev. Lathrop Taylor, a graduate of Middlebury College in 1839, succeeded him May 16, 1843, and resigned in July, 1845. He has been many years a most successful minister of the gospel in Illinois. The first pastor of the church was recalled and reinstalled Jan. 6, 1847, remaining pastor until the latter part of 1855, when he left to take the pastorate of the First Congregational Church in Quincy, 111., where he remained fourteen years, preaching afterward for limited periods in Chicago, Providence, Bridgeport, Conn., and North Middleborough, Mass. He was called to Taunton for the third time, and is now serving as secretary and superintendent of the

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

Associated Charities of Taunton. The Spring Street Church on leaving its first place of worship in 1853, March 23d, lor its new sanctuary, dropped its first name, and, in memory of Governor Edward Winslow, who in 1621 journeyed through the place, became the Winslow Church. Rev. Mortimer Blake, then the minister of Mansfield, was called to this church in 1855, and has remained its pastor twenty-seven years, with the manifest approval of heaven upon his labors.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

The membership, at first but forty-four, has since increased to four hundred and ninety-four, of whom more than half have died or removed, leaving now two hundred and ten members. The church building was enlarged in 1872 to accommodate its growing congregation, and was repaired aud modernized within in 1882. It has been from the beginning a strong and united body, ready for every good word and work. There are names in its early history which should never be forgotten, - Roswell Ballard, John, William, and Hodges Reed, Philander W. Dean, and their wives, with others of precious memory. The present deacons of the church are Edgar H. Reed and Andrew S. Briggs.

Passage source: History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1883.

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 Taunton City - it names this place 377 more 377 times.

Photographs

1 photograph, 1941

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

The small farm of John P. Collins in Taunton Massachusetts. He raises about six acres of vegetables and has eleven cows. To supplement his income he rents his truck out to a nearby Army camp
Delano, Jack, 1941. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

62 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 62 fires within 5 miles of Taunton between 2003 and 2020, burning about 42 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.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	29
Debris and open burning	14
Recreation and ceremony	7
Smoking	7
Fireworks	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
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
16 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
28 August 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
13 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachussetts State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
11 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
10 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bristol County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,846 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,846 specimens collected within 10 miles of Taunton between 1855 and 1975: 1,042 Animalia, 612 Plantae, 182 Fungi, 6 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A E Schuyler, A. A. Eaton 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
Apocynum cannabinum L.	1855	F. C. Seymour	Rehoboth
Condylura cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)	1855	Preparator(s): Edwin V. Komarek	Middleboro
Microtus pennsylvanicus pennsylvanicus (Ord, 1815)	1855	John W. Jenks	Middleboro
Peromyscus leucopus (Rafinesque, 1818)	1855	John W. Jenks	Middleboro
Astur Lacepède, 1799	1860	C. D. Lincoln	Taunton
Carex panicea L.	1863	J. H. Dean
Carex L.	1864	J. H. Dean	Taunton.
Carex vulpinoidea Michx.	1864	J. H. Dean
Baptisia tinctoria (L.) R.Br.	1866	Joseph Blake	Middleboro
Carex bullata Willd.	1866	Rev. J. Blake	Middleborough
Rhododendron viscosum (L.) Torr.	1866	Joseph Blake	Middleboro
Chelidonium majus L.	1875	not recorded

All 1,846 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Taunton: 4 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Taunton Plant	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
King Trucking Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Landfill Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mc Cabe Sand and Gravel Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Mccabe Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Mccabe Sand and Gravel Company Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Raynham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Bristol County

Storms near this place

41 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Taunton in 41 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 18 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 5 heavy rain, 5 flood. 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 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$30,000	Trees and branches were downed in several parts of town, including on Warner Boulevard, Somerset Avenue, and Glebe Street. One of these trees was downed onto a house, another onto a car.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	East Taunton	$20,000	Numerous trees near Middleboro Avenue and Hart Street in East Taunton were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$20,000	Trees and wires on County and William Streets were downed by thunderstorm winds. On William Street a tree and wires fell onto a car.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$10,000	Trees and wires on Richmond Street in Taunton were downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$10,000	An NWS storm survey team determined a microburst occurred in Taunton. Winds were estimated to be 70 to 80 mph. Six maple trees were uprooted on Tremont Street along Cobbs Creek, landing on four vehicles in the driveway behind a house. Several large branches were snapped and small sections of siding were torn off the house. A large spruce tree eight inches in diameter was blown onto a house and many other large tree limbs were snapped off trees. The house sustained minor damage. Two more trees fell behind this house. Numerous tree branches were downed. Behind another house, a tree fell taking down a portion of the back fence. On Eldridge Street, a silver maple tree about six inches in diameter was snapped near the base and fell onto a house. Several large branches were downed in this area as well. A sheet metal shed was blown into the next yard.
August 2012	Flood	Taunton	$10,000	One lane of Washington Street, between Court and Pleasant Streets, collapsed into a sinkhole seven feet in diameter and eight feet deep.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$10,000	no account filed
July 2014	Flash Flood	Taunton	$5,000	In Taunton, flash flooding stranded cars on Forest Street where the flood waters rose up to car doors. County Street was closed due to flooding at Ingell Street and in front of Pete's Market. In East Taunton, Middleboro Avenue was flooded near the Berkeley line and was described as a big lake. In Raynham, portions of North Street and Orchard Street were flooded and impassable.
May 2013	Lightning	Taunton	$5,000	Lightning struck a house on Jeanine Circle, causing damage to the electric service.
October 2006	Flood	Taunton	$5,000	Significant urban flooding was reported in Taunton.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$5,000	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$5,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$5,000	no account filed
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$3,000	Wires on Fremont Street were downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2021	Flood	Taunton	$2,000	In Taunton, a car was stuck in flood waters on Washburn Street.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$1,000	A tree at the intersection of Warren and Shore Streets was downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	$1,000	A two and a half foot diameter tree on Cameron Avenue was downed by thunderstorm winds.
September 2023	Flood	East Taunton	-	In Taunton, Middleboro Ave near the post office was flooded and impassable.
July 2011	Flood	Taunton	-	Several streets were flooded with 3 to 5 inches of water. Washington Street was covered with 5 to 6 inches of water over a large area. This portion of the street was almost impassable.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	Wires and large branches down on Dighton Ave.
June 1998	Flash Flood	Taunton	-	Ten Mile River
July 1998	Flash Flood	Taunton	-	Ten Mile River
April 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	Trees and branches were reported down near Route 140 as observed by a National Weather Service employee.
July 2012	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
July 2012	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
July 2012	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
August 2004	Funnel Cloud	Taunton	-	no account filed
April 2003	Heavy Rain	Taunton	-	no account filed
April 2000	Heavy Rain	Taunton	-	no account filed
April 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
February 1999	Heavy Rain	Taunton	-	no account filed
January 1999	Heavy Rain	Taunton	-	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	no account filed
January 1999	Heavy Rain	Taunton	-	no account filed
August 1999	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Taunton	-	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Taunton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Bristol 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
Weir Village	1.2 miles	33
Britanniaville	1.5 miles	33
Whittenton Junction	1.7 miles	33
Whittenton	1.7 miles	33
Raynham Center	2.6 miles	33
Westville	2.6 miles	33
Oakland	2.7 miles	33
Prattville	2.7 miles	33

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.

Wikipedia article on Taunton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q127506	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 613154. 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.