Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Whitinsville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1886Blackstone sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Whitinsville.
Every building
Whitinsville, building by building, 1903–1917
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
This village was originally Nipmuc native lands, and was first settled as part of Mendon in 1662. From 1662 to 1727 it was part of Mendon, then later it became part of Uxbridge from 1727 to 1772. In 1772 Northbridge finally became a separate town. The village's early name was "South Northbridge", before the Whitin family's rise to prominence. Col. John Spring led a militia training company from Uxbridge which fought in the American Revolution. Col. Spring was from the section that became South Northbridge.
Passages that mention Whitinsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, embracing a comprehensive history of the county from its first settlement to the present time1879 · page 148Read the page →
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Whitin took the machine manufacturing; Charles P. Whitin took the cottonmill in Whitinsville, and James Whilin took the unimproved privilege at Linwood, near the railroad station, in addition to the mills at North Uxbridge. The amount of work done in each of these establishments is very extensive. In the cotton business the power-looms employed are seven hundred and four. The spindles in use are thirty-three thousand seven hundred and ninet3'-two. In machines and machiner}-, the capital invested, according to the State census of 1875, was $605,000, and the value of the
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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity1907 · page 65Read the page →
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Manchaug to East Douglass, and then entered a wheelwright shop to learn the trade. He carried ort a wheelwright's business in East Douglass and Whitinsville, Massachusetts, until 1879, when he went to Dudley to engage in lumbering and farming there. In 1892 he added to his enterprises a grist mill and in 1899 a saw mill.
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History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, embracing a comprehensive history of the county from its first settlement to the present time1879 · page 140Read the page →
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The Blackstoue River runs the whole length of the town on the north-eastern side, and about a mile from the border. Muniford River and several natural ponds and great reservoirs water the south-west section of the town. These flow easterly to Whitinsville and to the railroad station, about midway of the southern line of the town. The borders of these rivers and ponds are intervale, meadow or level upland, but the larger part of the town is hilU". The whole tract west of the Blackstone and north of the Mumford, and the whole length of the section east of the main river, arc considerably elevated, and in parts
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Whitinsville, decade by decade
5 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1981