In the first half of the 19th century, this town in the Blackstone Valley was the overnight stopping point on the Blackstone Canal. That waterway was completed in 1824 and provided a crucial shipping highway between Worcester and Providence, kickstarting industry along the Blackstone Valley. As a textile center, Uxbridge was at the vanguard of …
Close to Lexington and Concord, this small town in Greater Boston participated in the first exchanges of the American Revolutionary War on April 19 1775. Bedford is at the terminus of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, a 10-mile rail trail that roughly tallies with the route of Paul Revere’s legendary Midnight Ride. The trailhead is at …
Thirty miles off the coast of Massachusetts, Nantucket is an island that conjures many associations, from affluence to shipwrecks. For decades up to the mid-19th century, this was the whaling capital of the world, an industry driven by the demand for the brightly burning and almost odorless wax extracted from the head-case of sperm whales. …
Near the head of the Blackstone River Valley, this town was first settled by Europeans in the 18th century. The modern story of Millbury really begins a century later with the Industrial Revolution. At that time a rash of textile mills cropped up along the Blackstone River and its tributaries, complementing a gun trade overseen …
On the North Shore, this wonderfully preserved town has more surviving First Period houses than any other community in the United States. There are some 60 houses in Ipswich that were built before 1725, and several are open to the public as historic house museums and restaurants. More recent is the Crane Estate, an extraordinary …
In the last few years this suburban town in the MetroWest region has been rated as one of most livable and family friendly communities in Massachusetts. One of many good things going for Wayland is the amount of natural space all around the town, from the shores of Lake Cochituate, home to an awesome town …
At the mouth of the Jones River and right next to Plymouth, Kingston is a seaside town known historically for its shipbuilding industry. Those shipyards were based along the riverbanks and flourished from the late 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, building vessels for the Old China Trade but also for the …
Facing Nantucket Sound on the Lower Cape, Harwich has all the ingredients of a dream Cape Cod getaway. The town has immaculate public beaches, rail trails, bucolic countryside, and Harwich Port, where much of the nightlife, culture and dining is concentrated. Harwich Port is a gorgeous maritime village with three cute harbors and lots of …
In Norfolk County, about halfway between Boston and Providence, Medway is a peaceful commuter town of just over 13,000. Medway’s southern boundary is formed by the Charles River, which was a source of water power for textile and paper mills in the 19th century. The river’s tributary, Chicken Brook flows north to south through Medway, …
First settled by Huguenots at the end of the 17th century, Oxford is a town of just over 13,000 on the French River. Something unusual about Oxford’s landscape is that much of the town’s area belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers for flood control purposes. You can visit two USACE properties in …