West Medway, Massachusetts

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.

1887 1989

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.

• Rabbit Hill Historic Districtlisted 1988 · 0.5 miles away
• Evergreen Cemeterylisted 2021 · 0.3 miles away

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.

• 1887 USGS Franklin quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Franklin quadrangle1:62500
• 1893 USGS Franklin quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
• 1919 USGS Franklin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
• 1921 USGS Franklin quadrangle1:62500
• 1941 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:31680
• 1942 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1953 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1953 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1969 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:24000
• 1969 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:25000
• 1977 USGS Holliston quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1987 USGS Medfield quadrangle1:25000, 2 printings
• 1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Medway Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 138 fires within 5 miles of West Medway between 2007 and 2020, burning about 165 acres in total. None started naturally. 26 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.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Caryville
• Happy Hills
• North Bellingham
• Wethersfield
• Camp Breezy Meadow
• Valley View

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,355 specimens collected within 10 miles of West Medway between 1867 and 1975: 2,845 Animalia, 368 Plantae, 131 Fungi, 7 Unrecorded, 3 Chromista, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Herz, A. B. Seymour, A. J. Grout 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
	Hypoprepia fucosa Hübner, 1831	1900	not recorded	Sherborn
	Grammia arge Drury, 1773	1867	not recorded	Sherborn
	Operophtera bruceata (Hulst, 1886)	1873	not recorded	Sherborn
	Gymnocarpium dryopteris (L.) Newman	1874	not recorded
	Nitella tenuissima (Desv.) Kütz.	1874	Piper, S. M.
	Thelypteris phegopteris (L.) Sloss.	1874	not recorded
	Carex vestita Willd.	1875	Collector unspecified	Norfolk.
	Haploa clymene Brown, 1776	1875	E. J. Smith	Sherborn
	Carex cryptolepis Mack.	1876	T. Morong	Ashland
	Carex cumulata (L.H.Bailey) Fernald	1876	T. Morong	Ashland
	Hieracium canadense Michx.	1876	Morong, T.	Framingham
	Juncus marginatus Rostk.	1876	T. Morong	Sandy bog, Ashland.

All 3,355 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 32 workings within 5 miles of West Medway: 25 past producers, 5 producers, 1 unknown, 1 plant. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, 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.

Every working recorded in Norfolk County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Medway in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2023: 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 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.

Every storm recorded in Norfolk County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 611742. 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.