BlockWest Leominster, Massachusetts
42 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1988. It stands in Leominster City. It lies in ZIP code area 01453. It stands on Baker Brook. The Survey maps it on the Fitchburg quadrangle.
Then and now
1887 to 1988The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
On record in West Leominster
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 2 records
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
Wellington Piano Case Company Buildinglisted 1984 · 0.8 miles away
Leominster High Schoollisted 2021 · 0.9 miles away
Topographic sheets covering this place
20 surveys from 42 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.
- 1887 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1889 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
- 1935 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1936 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:125000
- 1946 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:31680, 4 printings
- 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:50000
- 1954 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:31680
- 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:24000
- 1969 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
- 1975 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
- 1984 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Fitchburg quadrangle1:25000
- 1988 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Leominster city. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Chapter Clviil Military
Leominster haa an honorable war record. She would, indeed, be unworthy both of her ancestors and the times of her birth, if in all the struggles for liberty, she had not made full proof of her patriotism. It is true that the first settlers of the town had no personal experience of the tomahawk and the scalping-knife; but the story of what their fathers had suffered was a close remembrance ; and these hardy pioneers had barely time to build their rude homes, " establish God's house in the wilderness," connect the hill-tops by roads and erect here and there a mill to grind their corn and saw their logs, when the alarm of war sounded at the North, and the sword did not, for the next ihirty-and-five years, rest easy in its scabbard.
In the county-history sources
21,669 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 Leominster City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Charles J. Cobleigh has a large piano case factory at West Leominster. The original buildings on this site were erected by S. A. Meads and designed for a sash and blind shop. But when the Arlington Piano Company's factory was burned, in 1872, this property came into their possession. It was used by them while the business was continued. In August, 1879, Mr. Cobleigh began business for himself and in January, 1880, moved to the Arlington Shop. Previously he had been in the employ of John H. Lockey and others in the same business. Since 1880 he has made large additions to the original buildings and in many ways improved the ap- pearance and value of property at West Leominster. The buiness employs a hundred men and very lagely through Mr. Cobleigh's energy and business ability West Leominster is, to-day, a busy, comely and thriving part of the town.
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.
Fires near this place
198 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 198 fires within 5 miles of West Leominster between 2015 and 2020, burning about 172 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 88 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 |
| Smoking | 27 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 7 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 4 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 24 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.4 acres | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | MONOOSNOC HILL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Specimens collected near this place
12 of 1,868 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,868 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Leominster between 1864 and 1974: 1,141 Animalia, 523 Plantae, 184 Fungi, 9 Unrecorded, 8 Chromista, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson, A. Ferrett 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Porella platyphylla (L.) Pfeiff. | 1895 | James F. Collins | South spur, Mount Wachusett |
 | Athyrium filix-femina subsp. angustum (Willd.) R.T.Clausen | 1900 | Davenport | Pine Hill; Medford |
| Clemmys insculpta Fitzinger, 1835 | 1864 | Agassiz | ||
 | Carex maritima Gunnerus | 1870 | J. W. Congdon | Wellville |
 | Hylesinus aculeatus Say & T., 1824 | 1872 | unknown | Fitchburg |
 | Carex foenea Willd. | 1878 | W. Boott | Wachusett Mountain |
 | Merulius lacrymans (Wulfen) Schumach. | 1879 | Howes, A. | Massachusetts |
 | Sibbaldiopsis tridentata (Aiton) Rydb. | 1879 | Bailey, W.W. | summit of Mt. Wachusett |
 | Papaver orientale L. | 1880 | unknown | Townsend. |
 | Hypericum gentianoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. | 1881 | Fredrick L Sargent | Lunenburg |
| Nitella megacarpa (T.F.A.) R.D.W. | 1881 | T. F. Allen | Nashua River | |
| Arthuriomyces peckianus (Howe) Cummins & Y.Hirats. | 1892 | W. B. Hosmer |
All 1,868 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of West Leominster: 4 past producers, 2 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Lithium, Tin, Tin, Lithium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitchburg Area | Tin, Lithium | Occurrence | ||
| Leominster | Lithium, Tin | Occurrence | 1824 | |
| Leominster Pit | Geothermal | Past Producer | ||
| Keating Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Keating Quarry and Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Luenburg Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| P J Keating | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Szocik Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Tanzio Road Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leominster | 1.4 miles | 42 | |
| North Leominster | 1.4 miles | 44 | |
| South Fitchburg | 1.7 miles | 42 | |
| Whalom | 2.3 miles | 44 | |
| Lunenburg Station | 3.2 miles | 44 | |
| Fitchburg | 3.4 miles | 42 | |
| Gates Crossing | 3.6 miles | 43 | |
| Lunenburg | 4.0 miles | 44 |
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 Q122551993 | 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 610433. 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.