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

Whitinsville, Massachusetts

46 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Northbridge town. It lies in ZIP code area 01588. It stands on Purgatory Brook. The Survey maps it on the Uxbridge quadrangle. 6,750 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 322 feet above sea level.

Whitinsville within Worcester County

Population over time

2 figures

Whitinsville grew from 6,704 to 6,750 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.

YearPeople Change
20106,704
20206,750+46 (+1%)

Then and now

1886 to 1989

The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Whitinsville, surveyed 1989
Topographic sheet of Whitinsville, surveyed 1886

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.

Photographs

1 photograph,

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.

Whitinsville Brick Mill, Forge, 56 Douglas Road, Northbridge, Worcester County, MA
Whitinsville Brick Mill, Forge, 56 Douglas Road, Northbridge, Worcester County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires nearby

63 since 2003

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Whitinsville between 2003 and 2020, burning about 48 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
Smoking15
Debris and open burning14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Recreation and ceremony11
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Arson/incendiarism3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
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 2015Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
19 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 August 2015Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
31 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
30 August 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
2 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
26 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts 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 499 shown

Museums hold 499 specimens collected within 10 miles of Whitinsville between 1844 and 1974: 257 Plantae, 187 Animalia, 41 Fungi, 9 Protozoa, 3 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele, A. R. Hodgdon; F. L. Steele 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 Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.Chilonectria coryli (Fuckel) Ellis & Everh.1896Henderson
Specimen of Coryneum pulvinatum KunzeCoryneum pulvinatum Kunze1897D. Murray
Specimen of Sceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) LyonSceptridium dissectum (Spreng.) Lyon1899H. H. Scudder
A photograph of the species Trichophorum planifolium, not of this specimenTrichophorum planifolium (Spreng.) Palla1844Collector unspecifiedUxbridge
A photograph of the species Carex vesicaria, not of this specimenCarex vesicaria L.1848J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Potamogeton epihydrus, not of this specimenPotamogeton epihydrus Raf.1848J. W. RobbinsUxbridge
A photograph of the species Potamogeton bicupulatus, not of this specimenPotamogeton bicupulatus Fernald1854W. J. RobbinsUxbridge
A photograph of the species Carex brevior, not of this specimenCarex brevior (Dewey) Mack.1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex normalis, not of this specimenCarex normalis Mack.1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex siccata, not of this specimenCarex siccata Dewey1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Carex straminea, not of this specimenCarex straminea Willd. ex Schkuhr1855J. W. Robbins
A photograph of the species Hyla versicolor, not of this specimenHyla versicolor LeConte, 18251857Weinland, David Friedrich

All 499 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

10 of 29 shown

The federal mineral resources record lists 29 workings within 5 miles of Whitinsville: 24 past producers, 4 producers, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
A H Marando and SonsSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Armour PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Bannister PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Barnett Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Boston Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
De Gaetano Brothers IncSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Direnzo Brothers Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Douglas PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gilbon Mountain PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Guiou PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Worcester County

Storms nearby

6 since 1995

The National Weather Service names Whitinsville in 6 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2014Thunderstorm WindWhitinsville$10,000Wires were downed on Carr Street in Northbridge, and a tree was downed onto a house on Elm Place. In Upton, a tree was downed at the Police Station and on Route 140.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWhitinsville$1,200In Northbridge, a tree was down on Purgatory Road. Also, a tree and large branches were down on Hill Street.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindWhitinsville$1,000In Northbridge, a tree was down on wires on Purgatory Rd.
September 2019FloodWhitinsville-In the Whitinsville section of Northbridge, Park Street at Cottage Street was flooded and impassable for a time.
June 2017HailWhitinsville-At 456 PM EST, dime size hail was reported in Whitensville.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindWhitinsville-no account filed

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
New Village0.9 miles46
Hundred Acre Lot1.0 miles46
Plummer Corner1.2 miles46
Linwood1.5 miles46
Prentice Corner1.6 miles46
Northbridge Center1.7 miles45
North Uxbridge2.1 miles46
Riverdale2.4 miles45

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 WhitinsvilleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q9095935The 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 611078. 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.