[Talk-us-massachusetts] Town boundaries redux - was Re: Talk-us-massachusetts Digest,

[John Goodman]

On 2020.05.29 15:24, Bill Ricker wrote:
> 
>     Anyway, the best (and most fascinating) “data” regarding town
>     boundaries is the https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/handle/2452/47855
>     Atlases created by the Harbor and Lands Cmsn around 1900. They are
>     the original statewide surveys of town boundaries
> 
> 
> Those ATLASes are good reading.
> They are the Bible for the circumambulate the bounds exercise for each 
> town/city.
> I've downloaded a bunch of them.

Indeed, they are fascinating.

However, it would appear that at least some boundaries have changed 
since the atlases were published. For example, the atlas shows the 
Wakefield-Saugus line as extending from the Wakefield-Melrose-Saugus 
triple point northwest by north to a point near the High 
Street-Greenwood Avenue intersection (on what is now the Mapleway 
Playground's western edge), and thence to a cornerstone further to the 
east-northeast, whereas currently MassGIS's Oliver tool shows that the 
line has been relocated far to the east (so the area now occupied by 
Kendrick Road Extended, Galvin Circle, Brandt Circle, and Adele Circle 
are all now in Wakefield).

John