Once known as South Danvers, this North Shore city changed its name in 1868 as a tribute to the banker and philanthropist George Peabody, who was born here in 1795. George Peabody’s birthplace and childhood home has been preserved as a museum, with intriguing details about his early years and artifacts including personal letters. The …
In the picturesque mid-Cape, this set of seven villages makes up the largest community on Cape Cod. In the north is the charming Village of Barnstable, looking across the harbor to the dunes of the barrier beach, Sandy Neck. Facing Nantucket Sound in the south is Hyannis, which is essentially Cape Cod’s downtown, with some …
Within 15 minutes of downtown Boston, Everett is a diverse community on the Mystic River, with a hardscrabble background. Prominent on the skyline here are the chimneys of the Mystic Generating Station, expected to fully retire in the mid-2020s. Other former industrial areas along the riverfront have been replaced by a shopping center, a waterfront …
In the Providence metropolitan area, Attleboro is a growing city, home to 50,000 people on the MA-RI state line. For decades Attleboro was known as the Jewelry Capital of the World, thanks to a metalwork industry led by the L.G. Balfour Company, which was founded here in 1913. Throughout that time this city was the …
First settled in 1635, the city of Arlington later witnessed some of the most intense fighting in the Battles of Lexington and Concord at the dawn of the American Revolutionary War. The Jason Russell House, now a museum, was caught up in one of these skirmishes, resulting in the deaths of ten people, and the …
The commercial and cultural nucleus for the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Pittsfield is an upland city with vistas framed by the Taconic Range to the west and the Berkshire Hills in the east. Pittsfield had a booming economy at the turn of the 20th century, driven by a forerunner to General Electric. Along the stately …
In hilly North Central Massachusetts, Leominster emerged in the early 19th century as an important manufacturing center. Much of this industry was along the Monoosnoc Brook, which wriggles through downtown Leominster and will soon become part of a growing trail network linking this city with Fitchburg to the north. Leominster is the birthplace of the …
The birthplace of John F. Kennedy, Brookline is a town directly west of Boston, with lush parkland, two National Historic Sites and colorful neighborhoods to visit. JFK’s birthplace and childhood home is a National Historic Site, especially remarkable for the work of his mother Rose Kennedy in returning the building to how it looked in …
Sitting on the Mystic River, about three miles northwest of Boston, Medford is a city incorporated in 1892 but with a history going back deep into the 17th century. Medford is home to Tufts University, classed as a Research I University and producing numerous Nobel Prize laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. The august hilltop campus …
By a natural harbor on the South Shore, Plymouth is the place where the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower in 1620. You can grapple with this world-changing history at a multitude of attractions and landmarks, from living history at Plimoth Patuxet to the exceptional Pilgrim Hall Museum, where the personal possessions of several Pilgrims have …