East of Fitchburg in Worcester County, Lunenburg is a town of 12,000 with a distinct rural character and huge swaths of conservation land to discover. The town was incorporated in 1728, and was largely untouched by the Industrial Revolution,...
Across the harbor from the old whaling port of New Bedford, Fairhaven is a seaside town with an assortment of grand turn-of-the-century public buildings. These landmarks, including schools, the Town Hall and the Millicent Library,...
On the South Shore, about 25 miles south of Boston, Pembroke is a town on the North River, abounding with water, at marshes, brooks and a patchwork of large natural ponds. Every spring, alewife herring migrate through the town, from...
An upscale community on the South Shore, Duxbury’s is a town that made a name for itself at the end of the Age of Sail in the early 19th century. Duxbury has a stunning public beach park, on a long crescent of sand that curves out...
This South Shore town was incorporated some 300 years ago, and has a sedate old center with a house built by one of the town’s first European families. Now, the Stetson House (c. 1700) is a museum owned by the Hanover Historical...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
A wealthy suburb on the North Shore, Lynnfield is 14 miles north of Boston, and is known for an upscale outdoor shopping center. MarketStreet Lynnfield has upwards of 80 stores, restaurants for all palates, and in the winter has a...
First settled by Europeans in the 1730s, Charlton is a small town near the transition between Central and Western Massachusetts. This land was originally part of neighboring Oxford, and has a couple of wonderfully preserved historic...
In the MetroWest region, the town of Medfield is roughly equidistant to Boston, Providence and Worcester, which can all be reached in about 45 minutes. The town was first settled by Europeans in the 1640s, and on Main Street there’s...
One of the oldest towns in Massachusetts, Rehoboth was founded in 1643 as part of the Plymouth Colony. The defining events in the final days of King Philip’s War played out in Rehoboth in the 1670s, and at Anwan Rock you can see...
In the Hoosic River valley, surrounded by mountains, the smallest city in Massachusetts grew up as a manufacturing base for the region in the 18th and 19th century. Over time North Adams has reinvented itself as a crackling furnace...
This rural city of 12,500 is on the eastern edge of the Pioneer Valley, where the Quaboag and Ware rivers meet to form the Chicopee River. In its past, Palmer was known as the Town of Seven Railroads, and although active lines run...
