This archetypal New England seaside town is at the western edge of Buzzards Bay, right against the Massachusetts/Rhode Island border. Westport’s shore is full of drama, where the marvelous Horseneck Beach unrolls for two miles, skirted by dunes. At the eastern end of the beach is Gooseberry Island, jutting out into Buzzards bay for stupendous …
Sitting on the Massachusetts/Rhode Island border, Bellingham is a growing town crossed by I-495. This puts Bellingham on the Metropolitan Boston’s outer belt, and endows the town with a commercial corridor where there’s a newly updated Regal Cinemas location, and branches for Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods. Bellingham shares a boundary with the city …
Spreading across a large area northwest of Worcester, Holden is a small but fast-growing town of 20,000 people. There’s boundless open space, with thousands of acres of woods for public recreation within the town limits. These parcels of land, often with interconnecting trails, are looked after by the town or organizations like the White Oak …
On a craggy peninsula strewn with granite outcrops, the seafaring town of Marblehead is a slice of historic New England. To put the town’s history into perspective, two hundred of Marblehead’s residences were built before the American Revolution. These are in an historic district with some 900 contributing buildings, along twisting, rollercoaster streets. So one …
On the South Shore, Scituate is a coastal town with an adorable village center next to a natural harbor. Much of Scituate’s best dining and shopping can be done around the harbor, which is also the base for fishing charters, and a backdrop for all kinds of community events in the warmer months. The Scituate …
This oceanside suburb of Boston is squeezed onto a narrow, crooked peninsula, zigzagging out into Boston Harbor. A recurring theme for visitors to Winthrop is the waterfront scenery, with astonishing panoramas of the Boston Harbor Islands, Boston skyline and Logan Airport to be had from any number of spots along the peninsula. The strangest but …
Often spelled as “Foxboro”, this town in Norfolk County is perhaps best known as the home of the New England Patriots. The NFL team, which enjoyed a period of amazing success in the 2000s and 2010s, first moved to Foxborough in 1971. Their current home, the Gillette Stadium was completed in 2002, and is part …
On the MBTA’s Providence/Stoughton Line, Sharon is a commuter town with all the hallmarks of a rural New England community. For one thing, there’s a surfeit of public outdoor space, with a state park, conservation lands, an historic Mass Audubon sanctuary, and the spring-fed Lake Massapoag, which sets the scene for many community events. In …
In the MetroWest region, Hopkinton is a town that will be familiar to many as the starting line of the Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day in April. Hopkinton was bestowed with this honor in 1924 after the course was lengthened, removing the start from the neighboring town of Ashland. This is one chapter in an …
First developed on the Boston & Worcester Railroad, Ashland is a rapidly growing town that has more than doubled in population since the 1980s. There are two large bodies of water in town, built as reservoirs for Boston’s water supply in the 19th century, but repurposed as state parks in 1947. Ashland State Park and …