A rural suburban town of almost 12,000, Norfolk is on the southwestern edge of the Boston metropolitan area, in an upper valley of the Charles River. The early history of Norfolk circles around a religious dispute in the 18th century, causing congregation members to leave Wrentham and settle in North Wrentham. By the Civil War, …
This lively town northeast of Worcester was founded in the mid-19th century by two brothers in the carpet making industry. Half a century later, Clinton’s landscape changed forever when the Nashua River was dammed to form the 7-square-mile Wachusett Reservoir, the largest of its kind in the world at the time. You can walk along …
On just seven square miles, this town east of Brockton is one of the smallest by area in Massachusetts. Known for its shoemaking trade in the 19th and early 20th century, Whitman got its name from a local philanthropist in the 1880s, shortly after being made a township. Dairy farming has also been a way …
A residential community in Plymouth County, East Bridgewater has many of the signatures of a Southeastern Massachusetts Town, with cranberry bogs and dairy and fruit farms. In 1649, Sachem Rock in East Bridgewater was the site of a meeting between the settlers from the Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag sachem Massasoit. The land around this …
A residential western suburb of Boston, Weston is loved for its rural character, with more than 2,000 acres set aside as conservation land and public parks. The town’s civic center grew up in the 18th century on the Boston Post Road, with businesses providing services to travelers. One of these, the Golden Ball Tavern has …
East of Fitchburg in Worcester County, Lunenburg is a town of 12,000 with a distinct rural character and huge swaths of conservation land to discover. The town was incorporated in 1728, and was largely untouched by the Industrial Revolution, depending on agrarian farming until well into the 20th century. If you’re wondering about the name, …
Across the harbor from the old whaling port of New Bedford, Fairhaven is a seaside town with an assortment of grand turn-of-the-century public buildings. These landmarks, including schools, the Town Hall and the Millicent Library, were donated in a fit of generosity by the industrialist Henry H. Rogers. He was an executive at Standard Oil, …
On the South Shore, about 25 miles south of Boston, Pembroke is a town on the North River, abounding with water, at marshes, brooks and a patchwork of large natural ponds. Every spring, alewife herring migrate through the town, from Massachusetts Bay, along the North River, and up those smaller watercourses to their spawning grounds …
An upscale community on the South Shore, Duxbury’s is a town that made a name for itself at the end of the Age of Sail in the early 19th century. Duxbury has a stunning public beach park, on a long crescent of sand that curves out into Cape Cod Bay for six miles. Behind the …
This South Shore town was incorporated some 300 years ago, and has a sedate old center with a house built by one of the town’s first European families. Now, the Stetson House (c. 1700) is a museum owned by the Hanover Historical Society, and paints an intriguing picture of town life in the 18th and …