Description: A Massachusetts Farmers’ Marketi s a public market for the primary purpose of connecting, and mutually benefiting, Massachusetts farmers, communities and shoppers while promoting and selling products grown and raised by participating farmers.This Farmers' Markets GIS layer is derived from the Farmers’ Markets database maintained by the Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources. The Department provides technical assistance to individuals and groups trying to start a farmers' market, helps farmers find appropriate farmers' markets to participate in, and encourages consumers to patronize farmers' markets through various publications, including the MassGrown Map, which also pulls data from the Farmers’ Markets database.As well as basic information about the markets, this data layer includes information about participation in the food assistance programs Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program(FMNP) (see Attributes below). Women, Infants and Children Cash Value Vouchers (WIC-CVV) are not currently redeemable at farmers markets.This data layer is named FARMERSMARKETS_PT. The data are current as of June 5, 2023. DAR will provide updates to MassGIS at regular intervals each year.The GIS data includes all known farmers markets. The vast majority of farmers’ markets accepts some combination of EBT-SNAP, WIC-CVV, or WIC and Senior Coupons, and are thereby included in the Department’s database. The department also sends out an annual survey to all known market managers, which captures most farmers' markets that do not participate in any of these three programs. There are still likely to be some markets that are created without DAR's knowledge, markets may discontinue, and attribute values will change. It may take some time for DAR to learn of these changes. Occasionally a market’s location is unknown and cannot be included. Once verified the market usually will be included in the next update.The DAR database is updated continually, and the MassGIS layer is updated at least once per year. If you would like more up-to-date data, please contact Evan Marshall.There are four mobile farmers markets, based in Lowell, Somerville, Springfield, and Worcester. Only one location is included for each of these four markets. For more information about their other locations, contact David Webber.General farmers’ market information can be found at http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/agr/markets/farmers-markets/. For more information about dates, times, and locations of the farmers’ markets, or for more information about WIC and Senior FMNP, SNAP, or WIC CVV programs, contact David Webber, at 617-626-1754 or by email at david.webber@state.ma.us. To obtain the most current data, contact Evan Marshall by email at Evan.Marshall2@mass.gov
Copyright Text: Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
Description: This datalayer shows the location of Licensed Child Care Programs in Massachusetts. These programs include preschools, which serve infants through pre-kindergarten aged children, and before and after school programs that serve children through elementary school. The data set includes both Large Group and Small Group programs and was provided by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC)on October 4th, 2024.The layer is stored in SDE and distributed as CHILDCARE_PT.
Description: This point datalayer shows the locations of community health centers across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Centers appearing in this layer are those that provide primary, dental, or eye care as listed by the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers as of December 2024. Locations were scraped from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers Find a Community Health Center tool and were geocoded to MassGIS' address points and verified using current ortho imagery and individual websites where needed.The layer is named CHCS_PT.
Copyright Text: MassGIS, Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers
Description: This point data layer shows the location of acute care hospitals in Massachusetts. Acute care hospitals are those licensed under MGL Chapter 111, section 51and which contain a majority of medical-surgical, pediatric, obstetric, and maternity beds, as defined by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). The features in this layer are based on database information provided to MassGIS from the DPH, Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS)and the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA). All hospitals that have a 24-hour emergency department are included, but not all facilities in this layer have an emergency department. The November 2018 update recorded the level of trauma centers available at each facility. CHIA reviewed the data in November 2018, and the data layer was updated based on data provided by CHIA and DPH recent as of November 2023. Points for Steward Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center were removed following their closure on August 31, 2024."Specialty hospitals" are not included in this layer. Many can be found in the Non-acute Hospitals (HOSPITALS_NONACUTE_PT) layer.
Copyright Text: Massachusetts Department of Public Health (https://www.mass.gov/orgs/department-of-public-health) and the Center for Health Information and Analysis (https://www.chiamass.gov/)
Description: This dataset contains points which represent locations of all public libraries and their branches currently registered with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners(MBLC). MassGIS updated the layer from a list downloaded from the MBLC website in January 2025. Most libraries in this layer are members of the Massachusetts Library System (MLS). The list was cross-referenced to points in our master address databaseto create this geospatial layer.This layer also includes a small subset of "special" libraries as categorized by the MBLC whose main function is to operate as a library. Many schools, hospitals, trial courts, law offices, historical societies, museums, private companies and other public and private institutions house libraries in addition to their primary operations. They are not included in this data layer. MassGIS has separate layers for some of these types of facilities. Search the MBLC Library Directoryfor more.In ArcSDE the layer is named LIBRARIES_PT.MassGIS extracted from its master address database all points that were identified as libraries in building names. Using ArcGIS these were compared to the previous (2005) version of the Libraries point layer as well as to the latest database list from the MBLC. MassGIS checked library websites where there were discrepancies in names and addresses among the different sources. With the 2017 update, MassGIS dropped most special and all academic libraries that were included in the previous version because their MLS membership status changes frequently or may not be updated in the MLS in a timely manner by the library director or designee.
Copyright Text: MassGIS, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, Massachusetts Library System
Description: MassGIS' Level 3 Assessors’ Parcel Mapping data set was developed through a competitive procurement funded by MassGIS. Each community in the Commonwealth was bid on by one or more vendors and the unit of work awarded was a city or town. The specification for this work was Level 3 of the MassGIS Digital Parcel Standard. Standardization of assessor parcel mapping is complete for 350 of Massachusetts' 351 cities and towns. (Boston, which is not part of this project, is being processed separately). MassGIS is now incorporating updates from municipalities into the database.
Copyright Text: Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of Geographic Information (MassGIS)