Amesbury is a suburban community with an unusual industrial and manufacturing history. First settled by Europeans in 1645, the town's earliest industries included mills, shipyards and a heavily used ferry operation across the Merrimac River to Newburyport. There were always scattered farms in the...
Located just 20 miles north of Boston at the intersection of I-93 and I-495, Andover is a suburban community of 32 square miles with a population of 29,000. With easy access to the city and Logan Airport, Andover is home to many of the largest high-technology firms such as Hewlett-Packard,...
The Town of Ashby is a small rural community with a friendly atmosphere, located in the north central section of Massachusetts. It is a residential community that retains many of the farms and orchards that have enhanced the residents' pride in its beauty. The town is also home of the Willard...
The Town of Ayer grew up around the railroad industry in the 1840's and the railroad continued as a major force in shaping Ayer's economy through the early 1900's. Railroad switching yards, tanneries and mills prospered as a result of railroad transportation in the area which is now the Central...
The Town of Billerica is located 20 miles northwest of Boston and borders Lowell to the south. Incorporated in 1655, the town remained predominately agricultural until the mid-nineteenth century when a major mill complex was sited on the Concord River in North Billerica. Although a number of...
The Town of Boxford is a residential community in Essex County, approximately 25 miles north of Boston. The town is primarily rural in nature, and this character has been maintained by a minimum lot size of 2 acres, which has been unchanged since 1949. There are two Congregational Churches and two...
The Town of Carlisle offers peaceful residential living located within a short ride of Boston. Carlisle maintains a rich tradition in the preservation of open space and scenic ways and almost 20% of the town's 15 square miles is dedicated conservation land. The town serves as the home of the only...
The Town of Chelmsford is a suburban industrial town located in the Merrimack Valley. The community had a slow start since much of its present area was contained in a so-called Praying Town, established as a preserve for Christianized Indians in 1653. But fresh water fishing, access to abundant...
The Town of Dracut is a suburban industrial center on the periphery of Lowell and southern New Hampshire. Originally, in 1653, the community was part of the Wamiset Praying Town, one of the preserves set aside by the colonists for Christianized Indians. The town has several large ponds, bogs and...
Dunstable is a rural community located just south of the Nashua, New Hampshire border which encompasses a little over 17 square miles. Besides Nashua, Dunstable is also bordered by Hollis, New Hampshire at its northwest edge. Pepperell to the west, Tyngsborough to the east and Groton to the south....
The Town of Georgetown is located in northern Essex County, between the Merrimack River Valley and the communities bordering Plum Island Sound.
Still widely forested, with many acres of state forest land, the town features small town rural living within reach of employment centers via Route 95 and...
The Town of Groton, incorporated in 1655, is a lovely New England village nestled on the banks of the Nashua and Squannacook Rivers and is the home of two well known private schools, Groton School and Lawrence Academy.
Majestic antique homesteads, faded red barns, rolling apple orchards, colonial...
Groveland is a small residential community which retains all of the characteristics of a friendly rural town in the setting of a convenient suburb. The town was incorporated 1850, late in the state's history, after spending the 17th and 18th centuries attached first to Rowley and then to Bradford. ...
Settled in 1640, the present day city of 52,000 has maintained characteristics of hometowns throughout New England. Found within Haverhill is a revitalized business district which, residents note, includes one of the finest Queen Anne style industrial streetscapes in America. An established...
Lawrence's residents see the community as an older, urban, industrialized city whose history parallels that of the country as a whole. Originally a rural farming town, the city was transformed into a major industrial center when Boston entrepeneurs developed huge textile mills on the Merrimack...
The Town of Littleton is a rural industrial town on the outer edge of suburban Boston. Part of the town was allocated as an Indian preserve known as the Nashoba Indian Praying Town. Settlement of Littleton was delayed by the frontier wars until the early 18th century when intense competition...
The City of Lowell is the fourth largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its strategic location at the intersections of Routes 495, 93 and 3, provides excellent access to all points of interest in Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire and Maine. Commuter rail also provides an easy...
The Town of Merrimac was first settled by Europeans in the late 1650's, and the colonists' main crop was corn. As the town grew, Merrimac residents also pursued maritime trades, fishing for salmon and sturgeon and shipbuilding as well as acting as the distribution point for sugar and molasses from...
Methuen is a community of 40,000 people in the Lower Merrimack Valley. Its unofficial nickname, "the City known as the Town" reflects the growth and the diversity within the community. Voters in 1993 again amended the town charter to enact a mayor and 9 city councilors form of government and...
After many years of only being "on the way to other towns", Middleton has successfully developed an appealing and unique personality. The town is conveniently situated near many major highways, making it desirable to commuters. Thoughtful and deliberative zoning by-laws allow a careful blend of...
The Plantation of Newbury is located in the northeastern portion of Essex County. Pawtucket Indians hunted, fished and captured seasonal runs of smelt, alewives, shad, salmon and sea-run trout before settlers appeared.
The shellfish were especially plentiful on Plum Island and were appreciated by...
Newburyport is among the smallest cities in the state and is felt with some justification by its residents to be among the most beautiful, retaining as it does a large number of spacious, gracious Federalist homes built with the whaling and clipper ship fortunes of this 19th century seaport.
The Town of North Andover is located in Essex County, approximately 24 miles north of Boston. The Town lies along the banks of the Merrimack River and is surrounded by the Towns of Methuen, Haverhill, Boxford, Andover, Middleton, North Reading, and the City of Lawrence.
The Town of North Reading is an outlying suburban town in Middlesex County, lying entirely within the watershed of the Ipswich River. It was created an independent town in 1853 and retains a number of simple and well-preserved mid-18th century center-chimney vernacular houses with about three...
The small town of Pepperell is situated 35 miles northwest of Boston in rolling hill country at the junction of the Nissitissit and Nashua Rivers adjacent to the New Hampshire border. Once a thriving mill town and farming community, there are two paper mills and a braiding factory still in...
The Town of Rowley was founded in 1639 by the Reverend Ezekiel Rogers and a band of 20 families from Rowley, Yorkshire, England. The group sailed on the ship "John of London" bringing with them the first printing press to be used in America, the famous "Daye Press" which was to be set up in...
On September 6, 1638, Secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Simon Bradstreet received an agreement from Governor Winthrop and the General Court giving him and eleven other men the right to begin a plantation north of the Merrimack River. This land grant included the towns of Amesbury and...
The Town of Shirley is a rural industrial community located on the lowlands of the Catacoonamaug River. It was considered the frontier when the handful of earliest colonists arrived in 1720 and settled on scattered farms in the town. Grist mills, saw mills and fulling mills were developed after...
The Town of Tewksbury is a suburban community located on the uplands between the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. It is located on slightly rolling lowland terrain with large areas of bog and swamp throughout town.
Tewksbury was gradually settled from Billerica during the early decades of the 18th...
Townsend's rich history dates back to the seventeen hundreds; having been incorporated in 1732. The first mill of the town was built in 1733 in "Townsend Harbor". The pond at Townsend Harbor came into existence in 1734 when the dam was built for the mill. The Conant House, Grist Mill and Cooperage...
The Town of Tyngsborough is a small residential community located in the northwest section of Middlesex County. Composed of 17.86 square miles of land and surface water, bordering the towns of Dunstable, Groton, Westford, Chelmsford, Dracut, the City of Lowell, as well as the State of New...
Located 40 miles north of Boston, West Newbury is a delightful community characterized by rolling hills with broad valleys and an unspoiled rural charm. The Merrimack River, which flows along the northern border, provides scenic beauty and recreational boating. Hiking trails being developed along...
The Town of Westford was incorporated on September 23, 1729. The Town is located to the west of Lowell and north of Concord almost to the New Hampshire border.
Physically, Westford is a very beautiful town with rolling hills, lakes, and apple orchards. Originally Westford was noted for its farms...
The Town of Wilmington is a suburban industrial town occupying 17.2 square miles of the watershed of the Ipswich River. The town was part of an unstable Colonial frontier during Queen Ann's War. The community's early agricultural economy broadened to include a sawmill established in 1702 by Daniel...