Westwood Road Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

One of 1,353 National Register listings published here for Middlesex County · listed in 1989 · category: District.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by Summer St., Benton Rd., Westwood Rd., and Central St., Somerville
When was it listed? September 1989
Category. district
Also known as. Somerville MPS
National Register reference number. 89001221 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

82 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 82 fires within 5 miles of Westwood Road Historic District between 2015 and 2020, burning about 110 acres in total. None started naturally. 29 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
Arson/incendiarism	29
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22
Recreation and ceremony	12
Debris and open burning	11
Smoking	6
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
4 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
4 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
3 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
23 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
22 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
21 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	not named
2 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control	BROOKLINE

Every fire recorded in Middlesex County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Westwood Road Historic District: 9 plants, 2 past producers, 1 producer. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Iron, Lead, Gypsum-Anhydrite, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
(Facility) Vulcan Smelter--Chelsea, Ma.	Copper, Lead	Plant
C. J. Mabardy	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Malden Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Syncor Prdts Co--Malden, Ma.	Silica	Plant
Us Gypsum Co--Boston	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer
Whittemore Prdts Inc--Boston	Perlite	Plant
(Facility) Cambridge Smelter Co	Lead	Plant
General Metals & Smelting--Boston	Lead	Plant
Industrial Serv. Centers--Cambridge	Iron	Plant
Somerville Smelting Co.	Lead	Plant

Every working recorded in Middlesex County

Maps showing this location

17 surveys

United 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.

1893 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1903 USGS Boston quadrangle1:62500 - 13 printings
1943 USGS Boston quadrangle1:125000
1943 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000
1946 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:31680 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:31680
1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1956 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1971 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:24000
1971 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000
1977 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000
1985 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000
1985 USGS Boston North quadrangle1:25000 - 3 printings
1989 USGS Boston quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Spring Hill Historic District	0.1 miles	1989
Joseph K. James House	0.1 miles	1998
Walter S. and Melissa E. Barnes House	0.2 miles	1990
Martin W. Carr School	0.2 miles	1984
Lemuel Snow Jr. House	0.2 miles	1989
C. C. Crowell House	0.2 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89001221 in Record Group 79.
Middlesex County	All 1353 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.