7 Places To Stop At On A Massachusetts Road Trip
Massachusetts is a really historical state, with so many sights to see. Everywhere you go in Massachusetts has some historical significance. Massachusetts was the sixth state in the United States, so there are some buildings that seem to have been around for that long. Those are the sights you want to go see because there is so much to learn about them. I hope you find this article helpful!
1. Freedom Trail, Boston
The Freedom Trail runs throughout Boston and it takes you to all the famous places. There is no set path for the Freedom Trail, so you can go to whichever places you want to see. There are guided walking tours, or you can walk around on your own. As long as you have a map, or know something about Boston, you’ll be all set to look at famous places for hours.
Some of the places you’ll be able to visit are the Old South Meeting House, which is where the Boston Tea Party was planned, the Old North Church, which is where the lanterns were hung to warn that the British were coming, the USS Constitution, which fought the British during the War of 1812, and the Bunker Hill Monument, which is the location of the first major battle during the Revolutionary War. There are so many other places the Freedom Trail leads you to, I just can’t fit them all in the article. Go check it out!
2. Minuteman Trail, Lexington/Arlington
The Minuteman Bikeway is a really historical trail to follow in Massachusetts. It closely follows the path Paul Revere took in 1775, which started the American Revolution. It became a railroad before it became a bike road, though. In 1846, the tracks were laid to the east of Lexington, by the Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad. In 1873, tracks were laid to the west of Lexington by the Middlesex Central Railroad. Part of the original tracks can still be seen in Arlington, by Uncle Sam Plaza, in front of the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum.
The original section of the bikeway, the Arlington-Lexington section, was first opened in September of 1992. The Lexington-Bedford section was delayed due to water main construction and eventually opened in May of 1993. The bikeway was extended from East Arlington to Alewife Station in Cambridge in 1998. In 2008, the bikeway was inducted into the national Rail-Trail Hall of Fame by the Rails-Trails Conservancy.
3. Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth
The Pilgrim Society was founded in 1820, and they opened the doors to the Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1824. It is the oldest continuously operating public museum in the country, and it is America’s museum of Pilgrim possessions. The collection of 1600s artifacts actually came over on the Mayflower, and they help to show the story of the early Plymouth Colony.
The museum has paintings about what life was like back in the 1600s, it also has other artifacts in the museum, from what they used to make their shelters to the tools they used to plant their crops. Plymouth Rock is also right down the street, so when you are done learning all about the Pilgrims, you can go see where they landed on Plymouth. It is really fascinating to learn about the people who came to this country and made the country what it is today. I hope you travel to the museum and learn all about the pilgrims.
4. Old Castle, Rockport
This landmark is located at the intersection of Granite and Curtis Streets in Rockport, Massachusetts. It is believed to have been built in 1712, but the exact year is unknown. The first owner was thought to be Jethro Wheeler, a shoemaker from Rowley, who came to Rockport in 1713. His family lived in the house for six generations.
The Old Castle was given to the Village Improvement Society in 1929. They have restored the building to its original condition, and they’ve maintained it since then. In 1987, the Village Improvement Society asked the Sandy Bay Historical Society to take over the Old Castle, which they agreed to do. In 2004, they received a grant for $36,000 from the Community Preservation Act to fix the foundation and other structural pieces of the building. The Old Castle is the oldest building anywhere on Cape Ann that is open to the public.
5. Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, Saugus
This national historic site is about ten miles northeast of Downtown Boston, in Saugus. It is the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America, founded by John Winthrop the Younger and in operation between 1646 and 1670. It includes the reconstructed blast furnace, forge, rolling mill, shear, slitter, and a quarter-ton trip hammer. It is powered by seven large water wheels.
The Saugus Iron Works was opened on September 18, 1954, the first day of Saugus’s three-day celebration of the town’s 325th anniversary. After opening to the public, it was operated as a private museum, run by the First Iron Works Association and funded by the American Iron and Steel Institute. On April 5, 1968, the Saugus Iron Works was added to the National Park Service system and renamed the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site. The park is open seasonally, from spring through the fall.
6. Boott Cotton Mills Museum, Lowell
Visiting the Lowell Mills is something a lot of the third-graders in Massachusetts do. The Industrial Revolution in the 1800s hit Massachusetts and the Lowell Mills were started. Lowell became the first successful planned industrial city in the United States, thanks to the teenage girls who worked in the mills.
Francis Cabot Lowell introduced the Waltham-Lowell system to the city in the 1810s. It was a labor and production model employed during the rise of the textile industry, during the larger backdrop of rapid expansion during the Industrial Revolution. The mill museums you can explore today look exactly like they did almost 200 years ago, so it is really fascinating to see what the mills and cotton presses looked like. There is so much history about how Lowell became a major city in Massachusetts located in those mills.
7. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield
Basketball was first played in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 21, 1891. James Naismith first invented basketball using a soccer ball and a woven fruit basket nailed to the wall of the school gymnasium. He removed the bottom of the basket and they poked the ball through the basket with a metal rod. They found their own ball to use, that worked with dribbling, and they used a metal hoop with a backboard by 1906.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in 1959, on the campus of Springfield College. Too many fans traveled to the hall of fame to see the basketball stars, so they had to move it to a new location, one that didn’t use a college campus. The grand opening of the new hall of fame was on February 17, 1968. Basketball became incredibly popular after that, with hundreds of thousands of fans visiting the hall of fame every year. It is still located in Springfield, and it would be the perfect spot for any sports lover to go visit.
