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

Waban, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Newton City. It lies in ZIP code area 02468. It stands on Beacon Hill. The Survey maps it on the Newton quadrangle.

Waban within Middlesex County

Then and now

1893 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 96 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Waban, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Waban, surveyed 1893

Topographic sheets covering this place

46 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 Newton city, The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 - Newton City

Newton

JbIj^ 1700, M. 63. Capt. Noab, of Newton, an Officer in the Expedition against Canada. Killed in battle with the Freoch and Indians July C, 1C90. M. 50, leaving t son Thomas. Ebeneser, oC Newton, died June 21, 1691. .fi. 45. ... . . J. B. Jepson, Newton Comer, rereals many gravestones whose inscriptions are no longer l^ble, and others, recalling the names which filled a laige place in the early history of the town, and Belonged to the founders of its institutions and the authors of its prosperity.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

124,955 words on this township

History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Newton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Li 1656 John Jackson and Thomas Wiswall, in behalf of the inhabitants of Cambridge Village, petitioned the General Court to be released from paying rates for the support of the ministry at Cambridge church. The town of Cambridge remonstrated against this petition, and stated " that many persons in whose names the petition is signed, although inhabitants, yet not by the approbation of the town, having no riglit to town privileges save only the land whereon they dwell, and others of them do live on the farms of those who as yet never manifested tiieir desire of any such change - tlie most of them do live within four miles of our meeting-house, except two or tliree farms that lie above the Falls on Cliarles Eiver, near Dedham, and hardly ever go to meeting, and some of them are not much above two miles off. If they attain their desire and set their meeting-house at their pleasure, sundry of them will be farther from it than many of them now are from Cambridge church. And upon the same ground when they plead for a division, we have need to have at least four meetinghouses in our town, which now find it difficult to maintain one, as it should."

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

The first religious service among the Indians was held in the wigwam of Waban, their chief, October 28, 1616. At the date of this first missionary efl'ort, both Mr. Eliot and Waban were of the same age, forty-two years. Tiic chief met Jlr. Eliot at s(ime distance from the spot since marked by the Eliot monument, erected in 1S79, and welcomed him to the place of the assembly. The text chosen by IMr. Eliot for bis first sermon was Ezekiel xxxvii. 9, - "Come from the four wmds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live." By a singular coincidence, doubtless observed bv :\rr. Eliot, the word Ijmitli, in this text, was, in the Nonantum dialect, the same with the name of the Indian chief ; and Waban was the first convert under Eliot's ministry among this people. The service on the occasion extended to three hours, yet the Indians affirmed that they were not weary. After the sermon one of the Indians asked whether

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

At the period of the War of King Phibp in 1675, a wide-spread prejudice sprang up against the Indian race, as was very natural, and from this prejudice the Nonantums, who had been the peculiar charge of the apostle Eliot, were not exempt. He remained faithful to them to the last; but they became the object of the suspicions of the whites ; and partly to satisfy those who were hostile to them, and partly as a measure of safety, to preserve their lives, they were unwillingly removed from their homes, and transferred, amid much suffering, to Deer Island in Boston Harbor, and detained there till after the death of King Philip. Tiiey never regained their manhood. But although they had their civil and church state at Natick, and acquired a certain degree of civilization, nevertheless through emigration, death, or intermarriage, they gradually disappeared before the ad\ancing tide of the white population. In about two hundred years from the commencement of Eliot's labors, it is believed the last drop of the Nonantum blood ceased to flow in human veins; and now, except for the histories of Eliot's missionary Avork, the monuments commemorating his name and labors in South Natick and Newton, the few copies of the Indian Bible known to exist, the gravestone of Daniel Takawambait, the native Indian preacher, at Natick, and the cellar-holes of the liouses of some of the Indians on the slope of Began Hill in Dover, the name and record of tiiesc pcojjle liave titterly vanished. Tlie Indian Bible and the Poor Mail's Practice ofPieti/, with a few historical reports and letters, are the only existing records of the work of faitli of the Indian apostle. It is said that with tlie materials thus supplied, the wife of Rev. Dr. Robinson, the author of the Biblical Re-

Passage source: History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County, published 1880.

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 Newton City - it names this place 12 more 12 times.

Fires near this place

109 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 109 fires within 5 miles of Waban between 2003 and 2020, burning about 382 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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
Recreation and ceremony57
Missing data/not specified/undetermined38
Debris and open burning7
Arson/incendiarism3
Smoking2
Other causes1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
4 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
3 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
3 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM
23 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlWELLESLEY
21 September 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlNEEDHAM

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 2,618 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,618 specimens collected within 10 miles of Waban between 1898 and 1975: 1,392 Animalia, 627 Plantae, 544 Fungi, 29 Protozoa, 13 Bacteria, 10 Chromista, 3 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by ?, A B Seymour, 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 SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 18221900not recordedWayland
Specimen of Lysimachia × producta (A.Gray) FernaldLysimachia × producta (A.Gray) Fernald1900A. P. Chute
Aglaospora profusa (Fr.) De Not.1898Collector unspecified
A photograph of the species Antennaria howellii, not of this specimenAntennaria howellii subsp. canadensis (Greene) R.J.Bayer1898Williams, E.F.
A photograph of the species Antennaria parlinii, not of this specimenAntennaria parlinii subsp. fallax (Greene) R.J.Bayer & Stebbins1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Antennaria plantaginifolia, not of this specimenAntennaria plantaginifolia (L.) Hook.1898not recorded
A photograph of the species Aquilegia canadensis, not of this specimenAquilegia canadensis L.1898M. I. GunnNatick
A photograph of the species Acanthis flammea, not of this specimenAcanthis flammea flammea (Linnaeus, 1758)1900ZAPPEY, W RROSLINDALE
A photograph of the species Acer carpinifolium, not of this specimenAcer carpinifolium Siebold & Zucc.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Acer palmatum, not of this specimenAcer palmatum var. dissectum (Thunb.) Miq.1900A. K. HarrisonHarvard Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
A photograph of the species Agaricus brunnescens, not of this specimenAgaricus brunnescens Peck1900Morris, G. E.Waltham
A photograph of the species Agonopterix atrodorsella, not of this specimenAgonopterix atrodorsella Clemens, 18631900E. J. SmithSherborn

All 2,618 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 Waban: 7 past producers, 1 producer, 1 plant. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Tantalum. 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
Nrc Inc--Newton, Ma.Tantalum, Niobium (Columbium)Plant
Walpole QuarryStonePast Producer
Massachusetts Broken Stone CoStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Weston MineStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Burton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Greendale PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Town of NeedhamSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Town of WellesleySand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Storms near this place

2 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Waban in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2020: 2 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWaban$7,000In the Waban section on Newtown, a large tree was down on a house on Southwick Road. Two wires also were down.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindWaban$1,000At 755 PM EST, a tree was down on Devonshire Road in Newton.

Every storm recorded in Middlesex 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
Eliot0.9 miles46
Woodland1.0 miles46
Newton Upper Falls1.0 miles46
Newton1.1 miles46
Newton Lower Falls1.4 miles46
Newton Center1.5 miles46
Newton Highlands1.5 miles46
West Newton1.6 miles46

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 WabanAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7958601The 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 612396. 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.