Wrentham, Massachusetts

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Norfolk County

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 4 records

• Original Congregational Church of Wrenthamlisted 2014
• Plimpton-Winter Houselisted 1985
• Roebuck Tavernlisted 1984
• Wrentham State Schoollisted 1994

Surveyed buildings and structures 2 records

• David Fisher House, Wrenthamfederal building survey, 4 photographs
• Guild-Kollock House, Wrenthamfederal building survey, 9 photographs

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
• 1940 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
• 1945 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:24000
• 1946 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1964 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:25000
• 1964 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:24000
• 1977 USGS Wrentham quadrangle1:25000
• 1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
• 1987 USGS Franklin 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 Wrentham Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

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.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 164 fires within 5 miles of Wrentham between 2007 and 2020, burning about 73 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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.

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:

• Wampum Corner
• Acorn Terrace
• Wampum Rock
• West Foxboro
• Brushwood
• Franklin

Every fire recorded in Norfolk County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,377 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wrentham between 1843 and 1975: 633 Fungi, 346 Plantae, 275 Animalia, 87 Protozoa, 16 Chromista, 15 Unrecorded, 5 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A Herz, A. A. Eaton, 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	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Polygala paucifolia Willd.	1843	Shore	Woonsocket
	Carex swanii (Fernald) Mack.	1870	Joseph Blake	Sharon
	Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.	1870	Joseph Blake	Sharon
	Chantransia hermannii (Roth) Desvaux	1870	F. W. Dewart
	Trichophorum planifolium (Spreng.) Palla	1870	Joseph Blake	Sharon
	Hamamelis virginiana L.	1871	T. Morong
	Ranunculus trichophyllus Chaix	1871	Joseph Blake	Sharon
	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.
	Carex echinata var. echinata	1876	W. P. Rich

All 1,377 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Wrentham: 16 past producers, 10 producers, 1 unknown. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Gold. 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 Wrentham in 20 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 lightning, 3 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 612136. 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.