A wealthy suburban town to the south of Boston, Milton takes pride in its leafy streets, rich history and parcels of protected open space. The largest of these is the Blue Hills Reservation, where a chain of granite hills culminates with the 635-acre Great Blue Hill, the summit of which has views of the whole …
In the Merrimack Valley by the NH-MA state line, Dracut is a town of just over 32,000 and a northern neighbor to the mill town, Lowell. The landscape in Dracut is rural, with a lot of opportunities for agritourism, meeting the herd at an acclaimed dairy farm, digging for carrots or picking your own berries …
With a strong community spirit and lots of public events, Needham is a town on the I-95, and has boundaries defined by the Charles River. That watercourse appears in many of Needham’s standout attractions, with spacious parcels of urban nature along the banks in the west and south, and the iconic Echo Bridge crossing the …
Southeast of Lowell, Tewksbury is a growing town of just over 30,000 on the hilly ground between the Concord River in the west and the Merrimack River in the north. Next to Tewksbury Center sits the 800+ acre campus of the state-owned Tewksbury Hospital, established as an almshouse in 1852, and becoming a hospital for …
This town in Essex County occupies a large tab of land reaching from the bank of the Merrimack River, next to Lawrence, south to the vast woods of the Harold Parker State Forest. The old center of North Andover is on a typical New England green, under the Gothic Revival spire of the North Parish …
An historic manufacturing center in the Blackstone Valley, Milford is renowned for its pink granite, discovered in 1870 and quarried for buildings like the Boston Public Library (1895) and Worcester City Hall (1898). Milford is near the source of the famous Charles River, and there’s a growing rail trail along the CSX right-of-way, tracking the …
Just minutes from downtown Boston on the MBTA Haverhill Line, Melrose is a suburban city with a thriving downtown area, a Victorian townscape and easy access to parkland and natural space. The recreation opportunities around Melrose are off the charts. For one thing, you’ve got the Middlesex Fells Reservation, with its lakes and miles upon …
Dubbed “America’s Oldest Seaport”, Gloucester was first settled by Europeans more than 400 years ago, and for all this time has been a center for the fishing industry. From the 19th century, the moody seascapes at Cape Ann began to attract painters like Winslow Homer, and the longest-operating art colony in the United States can …
Sometimes overlooked in favor of Cape Cod’s more famous destinations, Falmouth is an adorable town on the Upper Cape, with culture, shopping, cosmopolitan dining, marvelous coastal views and fine public beaches. Falmouth is a point of departure for ferries to Martha’s Vineyard, which is visible across the sound, and the village of Woods Hole is …
Often written as North Attleboro, this town on the MA/RI line near Providence is noted for its community spirit and a vital downtown area. People come together at North Attleborough Center for a packed calendar of events, and there’s a lot of local shopping and dining to be done along Washington St here. Away from …