In Greater Boston, just outside I-95, Norwood is a town of just over 30,000 that recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. In the 19th century, Norwood’s growth was fueled by the papermaking, printing and tanning industries, and there are still some mill buildings left over from that time, as well as the refined Tudor-style residence of …
In the early hours of April 19, 1775, Paul Revere entered Lexington on his momentous Midnight Ride to warn the local militia and revolutionaries, John Hancock and Samuel Adams about the approaching British troops, heading to Concord to destroy Colonial powder and cannons. That morning the first armed engagement in the American Revolutionary War took …
Diverse and densely populated, this near north suburb of Boston is home to just over 40,000 people and was historically known for its large Jewish community and naval hospital. Chelsea is a matter of minutes from downtown Boston, while the sweeping Revere Beach and the ultramodern Encore Boston Harbor Casino resort are even closer. The …
Founded in 1630, Watertown was one of the earliest Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements, and came about after a group of Puritan immigrants traveled up the Charles River. In the early 1830s, the hilly easternmost part of Watertown was chosen for Mount Auburn Cemetery, a new and massively influential kind of burial ground, in a picturesque …
In the Merrimack Valley, Chelmsford is a likable town crossed by Interstate 495, Boston’s outer beltway. Chelmsford was incorporated as long ago as 1655, and right on the Town Common is a cemetery founded that very year. The common is still integral to life in Chelmsford, hosting almost every important public event on the calendar, …
This suburban city is on the South Shore, at the foot of the Blue Hills, which pass by to the north. Randolph is great if you love the outdoors, with many of the most cherished spaces in the Blue Hills Reservation state park close by, like Ponkapoag Pond, renowned for its Atlantic white cedar bog. …
One of the largest towns by area in Massachusetts, Dartmouth is on the state’s South Coast and sits next door to the famous old whaling port, New Bedford. Sparsely populated, Dartmouth comprises a series of historic villages, set amid farmland, vineyards, marshlands and woods. In the south, on Buzzards Bay, the town has a maritime …
This small city in Norfolk County has a history going back to 1660, but took an important step after incorporation in 1778 by becoming the first place in the country to be named after Benjamin Franklin. Not long after, the Founding Father sent the town a collection of books, which is the origin of the …
An early planned industrial community that produced paper, silk and alpaca wool, Holyoke was laid out in the 1840s, and is a rare New England city to have a grid plan. Something special about the industrial cityscape is a network of power canals. In the 1880s this system gave rise to innovations in the field …
This well-heeled town in northeastern Massachusetts was incorporated as long ago as 1646, and has the highest point in Essex County, with views of the Boston skyline, 20 miles away. Andover is known for the ultra-prestigious secondary school Phillips Academy, founded in 1778 and with Humphrey Bogart, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jack …