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

West Berlin, Massachusetts

43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Berlin town. It lies in ZIP code area 01503. It stands on Reubens Hill. The Survey maps it on the Clinton quadrangle.

West Berlin within Worcester County

Then and now

1887 to 1997

The same ground, surveyed 110 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of West Berlin, surveyed 1997
Topographic sheet of West Berlin, surveyed 1887

Compare 1887 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

43 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

108 since 2004

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 108 fires within 5 miles of West Berlin between 2004 and 2020, burning about 60 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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 burning48
Recreation and ceremony20
Missing data/not specified/undetermined18
Smoking9
Arson/incendiarism8
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
7 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
23 September 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 September 2016Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
12 September 2016Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worcester County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,646 shown

Museums hold 1,646 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Berlin between 1858 and 1973: 1,089 Animalia, 304 Plantae, 241 Fungi, 5 Unrecorded, 4 Protozoa, 3 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. C. Gibson, A. G. Chandler, A. K. Harrison 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 Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.Chrysosplenium americanum Schwein. ex Hook.1899E. F. Williams
A photograph of the species Quercus velutina, not of this specimenQuercus velutina Lam.1858E. S. HoarRoad to Marlboro, Concord.
A photograph of the species Condylura cristata, not of this specimenCondylura cristata cristata (Linnaeus, 1758)1859E S WheelerBERLIN
A photograph of the species Dryobates pubescens, not of this specimenDryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson, 1832)1861not recordedBolton
A photograph of the species Clemmys insculpta, not of this specimenClemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 18351864Agassiz
A photograph of the species Bromus sterilis, not of this specimenBromus sterilis L.1879C. E. Faxon
A photograph of the species Merulius lacrymans, not of this specimenMerulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach.1879Howes, A.Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Potamogeton gramineus, not of this specimenPotamogeton gramineus L.1879T. MorongLake Quinsigamond
A photograph of the species Potamogeton berchtoldii, not of this specimenPotamogeton berchtoldii subsp. berchtoldii1880T Morong
A photograph of the species Potamogeton vaseyi, not of this specimenPotamogeton vaseyi J.W.Robbins1880Faxon, E.; Faxon, C.E.Worcester, Lake Quinsigamond
Arphia sulphurea (Fabricius, 1781)1892unknownWellesley
A photograph of the species Castilleja coccinea, not of this specimenCastilleja coccinea (L.) Spreng.1892E. C. SmithMarboro.

All 1,646 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 16 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of West Berlin: 13 past producers, 2 producers, 1 prospect. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Iron. 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
Berlin Stone Co QuarryStone, DimensionProducer
Gneiss QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Sterling ProspectIron, ZincProspect
Bates Sand and Gravel Co.Sand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Berin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Berlin Town PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Bolton PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Casaceli TruckingSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Casaceli Trucking PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

1 since 2025

The National Weather Service names West Berlin in 1 storm report between 2025 and 2025: 1 tornado. 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
September 2025Tornado (EF0)West Berlin$5,000EF1 tornado touched down west of Barnes Hill Road in Berlin, MA and traveled ENE crossing Derby road and West street. Many soft or hardwood trees snapped at the trunk or uprooted.

Every storm recorded in Worcester 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
Carterville0.8 miles43
Berlin1.3 miles43
Boylston2.3 miles43
Clinton2.3 miles43
Duck Harbor (historical)2.4 miles43
Seventh Day Adventist Village2.5 miles43
Fryville2.6 miles43
South Berlin2.6 miles44

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 610934. 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.