One of the oldest towns in the United States, Taunton was founded in 1637 by members of the Plymouth Colony. The excellent Old Colony History Museum shines a light on that history, and charts different aspects of the region’s development, from Taunton’s time as a hub for the silver industry in the early 19th century. …
The second-oldest city in Massachusetts, Weymouth dates back to 1622 when it was the site of a failed colony, before finding its feet as a settlement a few years later. Abigail Adams (1744-1818), the wife of second US President John Adams and the mother of sixth US President John Quincy Adams, was born in Weymouth, …
For several decades up to the Civil War, this town on the South Coast was the world’s foremost whaling port. Whaling pervaded every aspect of life in New Bedford, to the point where more than a dozen city blocks are now a national park to safeguard that history. One man to pass through New Bedford …
One of the first planned cities in the United States, Lawrence was started in 1845, under the auspices of textile industrialist Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855) and the associates of the Essex Company. This was a project on a grand scale, building two canals on either side of the Merrimack River to power a long line of …
Where the Taunton River flows into Mount Hope Bay, Fall River is a maritime city known for its historic textile industry, a busy port and Portuguese heritage. Around a third of the city’s residents are descended from Portuguese immigrants, who arrived mostly from the Azorean island of São Miguel at the turn of the 20th …
Nicknamed The Garden City, Newton is a prosperous western suburb of Boston, composed of 13 villages instead of a central downtown area. Many of these villages, like Newton Centre, are well worth visiting, with pedestrian-friendly streets endowed with locally owned stores, restaurants and other services. Each village developed at a different time, most around a …
To the northwest of Boston, Somerville is a densely populated city that was once unflatteringly known as Slummerville. A lot of things have happened since the 1980s to change that perception. One was the extension of the MBTA’s Red Line in the 1980s, spurring development around Davis Square and Porter Square in particular. What you …
The anchor for the MetroWest region, Framingham is a suburban city about half an hour by road from Boston and on the route of the Boston Marathon. The city dates back more than 300 years, and while it was once known for its industry, is now a mixture of retail and offices, woven into a …
Known for its diverse populace and generous expanses of hilly parkland, this northern suburb of Boston has come through massive development in the last few decades. Malden’s recent transformation has much to do with its proximity to Boston, with North Station just ten minutes away on the MBTA’s Haverhill Line. The city has an international …
Near the New Hampshire border and connected to Boston by the namesake MBTA commuter line, Haverhill is a city with a lot of recreation space within its limits. There’s a ski area ten minutes from downtown, as well as a cluster of lakes home to a hilltop castle from the 1870s. At Haverhill’s industrial peak …