BlockFrom the record
One of 686 National Register listings published here for Worcester County · listed in 2023 · category: District.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
American Optical Company Historic District
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023. 21 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1887.
The listing
- Address. Optical Dr., Mechanic, Case, Cabot, Charlton, Main, and Wells Sts., Southbridge
- When was it listed? May 2023
- Category. district
- National Register reference number. 100008957 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
22 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of American Optical Company Historic District between 2015 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 burning | 8 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 August 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 30 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 27 June 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 25 June 2020 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 June 2020 | Natural | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 26 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 19 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 19 May 2016 | Smoking | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of American Optical Company Historic District: 6 past producers. None of them still produces. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ciesla Brothers Inc | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Ciesla Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Highway Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Landfill Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Town of Southbridge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Town of Sturbridge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | Sedimentary |
Maps showing this location
21 surveysUnited States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
- 1887 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
- 1890 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
- 1893 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500 - 7 printings
- 1908 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000 - 2 printings
- 1915 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
- 1921 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
- 1942 USGS Ware quadrangle1:125000
- 1943 USGS Brookfield quadrangle1:62500
- 1945 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:31680 - 2 printings
- 1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:31680 - 2 printings
- 1952 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
- 1967 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000
- 1975 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000
- 1982 USGS Southbridge quadrangle1:25000 - 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Holyoke quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Building at 52 Main Street | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | House at 59-63 Crystal Street | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | House at 64 Main Street | 0.2 miles | 1989 |
 | House at 70-72 Main Street | 0.3 miles | 1989 |
 | House at 3 Dean Street | 0.3 miles | 1989 |
 | Maple Street Historic District | 0.3 miles | 1989 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100008957 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Worcester County | All 686 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- 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.
- 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.