347 Best Sights in Massachusetts, USA

Arlo Guthrie fans will want to make a pilgrimage to this Interfaith church used as a community gathering space and sometimes concert venue. The church, where Guthrie's famous song “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” began and where the movie “Alice’s Restaurant” was filmed, hosts weekly "Hootenannies," community lunches and small concerts. 

Inventor John Hays Hammond Jr., credited with more than 500 patents, including remote control via radio waves, built this structure in 1926 to resemble a "medieval" stone castle. The museum contains medieval-style furnishings and paintings, and the Great Hall houses an impressive 8,200-pipe organ. From the castle you can see Norman's Woe, the rock made famous by Longfellow in his poem "The Wreck of the Hesperus." From July through October, unique "Candlelight and Spiritualism Tours" are an additional option on Thursday night (for an extra fee), with discussion of topics like the Ouija board, spirit photography, séances, and the science behind Spiritualism. Note: the museum is not wheelchair accessible. Parts of the grounds are free to visit.

America's third Shaker community, Hancock was founded in the 1790s. At its peak in the 1840s, the village had almost 300 inhabitants who made their living farming, selling seeds and herbs, making medicines, and producing crafts. The religious community officially closed in 1960, but visitors today can still see demonstrations of blacksmithing, woodworking, and more. Many examples of Shaker ingenuity are on display: the Round Stone Barn and the Laundry and Machine Shop are two of the most interesting buildings. The Shaker focus on sustainability has been maintained in the form of water turbines, sustainable gardens, and a solar array. There's also a farm (with a wonderful barn), some period gardens, a museum shop with reproduction Shaker furniture, a picnic area, and a café. Visit in April to catch the baby animals at the farm, or in September for the country fair. Reserve early if you want a spot at the Shaker-inspired suppers in October.

On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere came here to warn patriots John Hancock and Sam Adams (who were staying at the house while attending the Provincial Congress in nearby Concord) of the advance of British troops. Hancock and Adams, on whose heads the British king had put a price, fled to avoid capture. The house, a parsonage built in 1698, is a 10-minute walk from Lexington Common. Inside is the Treasures of the Revolution exhibit, and outside, a Colonial herb garden. Guided tours take place on the hour.

This is the North End's main thoroughfare, along with the smaller and narrower Salem Street. It was named for the ruling dynasty of 18th- and 19th-century England; the label was retained after the Revolution, despite a flurry of patriotic renaming (King Street became State Street, for example). Hanover's business center is thick with restaurants, pastry shops, and cafés, all celebrating the cuisine of the Old Country and most offering valet parking to combat the lack of parking. Hanover is one of Boston's oldest public roads, once the site of the residences of the Rev. Cotton Mather and the Colonial-era patriot Dr. Joseph Warren, as well as a small dry-goods store run by Eben D. Jordan—who went on to launch the now-defunct Jordan Marsh department stores.

Whimsical murals on cement barriers, colorful wooden chairs mounted on the outside wall of a commercial building, large-scale sculpture—together around 30 pieces generate an artistic ambience in the industrial setting of East Boston's working marina and shipyard. HarborArts curates a rotating collection of works by local and international artists across 14 acres, completely open to the public for perusal.

West of Chatham center, on the calmer and warmer waters of Nantucket Sound, Harding's Beach is very popular with families. It can get crowded, so plan to arrive earlier or later in the day. Amenities: food trucks; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: swimming; walking; windsurfing.

This green space is home to the first statue on city-owned property honoring a woman. The 10-foot bronze statue of Harriet Tubman is dedicated to the famous abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor, nurse, spy, warrior, and crusader for women's rights. Although she never lived in Boston, Tubman had many links to the area through her abolitionist network.

Formerly known as the Semitic Museum, this Harvard institution is an almost unknown gem, serving as an exhibit space for Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and ancient Near East artifacts and as a center for archaeological exploration. The museum's extensive temporary collections rotate, while more permanent exhibits include life-size casts of famous Mesopotamian monuments, authentic mummy coffins, and tablets containing the earliest forms of writing. Free lectures are held on a rotating schedule (taking the summer season off), and the building also houses the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

The tree-studded, shady, and redbrick expanse of Harvard Yard—the very center of Harvard University—has weathered the footsteps of Harvard students for hundreds of years. In 1636 the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted funds to establish the colony's first college, and a year later chose Cambridge as the site. Named in 1639 for John Harvard, a young Charlestown clergyman who died in 1638 and left the college his entire library and half his estate, Harvard remained the only college in the New World until 1693, by which time it was firmly established as a respected center of learning. Local wags refer to Harvard as WGU—World's Greatest University—and it's certainly the oldest and most famous American university.

Although the college dates from the 17th century, the oldest buildings in Harvard Yard are from the 18th century (though you'll sometimes see archaeologists digging here for evidence of older structures). Together the buildings chronicle American architecture from the Colonial era to the present. Holden Chapel, completed in 1744, is a Georgian gem. The graceful University Hall was designed in 1815 by Charles Bulfinch. An 1884 statue of John Harvard by Daniel Chester French stands outside; ironically for a school with the motto of "Veritas" ("Truth"), the model for the statue was a member of the class of 1882 and not Harvard himself. Sever Hall, completed in 1880 and designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, represents the Romanesque revival that was followed by the neoclassical (note the pillared facade of Widener Library) and the neo-Georgian, represented by the sumptuous brick houses along the Charles River, many of which are now undergraduate residences. Memorial Church, a graceful steepled edifice of modified Colonial Revival design, was dedicated in 1932. Just north of the Yard is Memorial Hall, completed in 1878 as a memorial to Harvard men who died for the Union cause; it's High Victorian both inside and out. It also contains the 1,166-seat Sanders Theatre, which serves as the university's largest lecture hall, site of year-round concerts by students and professionals, and the venue for the festive Christmas Revels.

Many of Harvard's cultural and scholarly facilities are important sights in themselves, but most campus buildings, other than museums and concert halls, are off-limits to the general public.

The Harvard Information Center, in the Smith Campus Center, has a small exhibit space, distributes maps of the university area, and offers free student-led tours of Harvard Yard. The tour doesn't include visits to museums, and it doesn't take you into campus buildings, but it provides a fine orientation. The information center is open year-round. Students can usually be found standing around the Harvard Square T stop, hawking their guided tours led every half hour for $22. You can also download a mobile tour on your smartphone or purchase a self-guided tour map for $3.

Situated on the wonderfully scenic Charles River Esplanade, this acoustic and artful concert venue—100 feet wide and wood inlaid—annually hosts the Boston Pops' famous July 4 concert and dozens of other free, summer classical-orchestra performances, music festivals, film screenings, and other events. It's called a shell, well, because it looks like one.

Loud, self-promoting vendors pack this exuberant maze of a marketplace at Marshall and Blackstone streets on Friday and Saturday from dawn to dusk (most vendors are usually gone by 5 pm). As they have since 1820, pushcart vendors hawk fruits and vegetables for much cheaper than grocery stores against a backdrop of fish, meat, and cheese shops. The accumulation of debris left every evening has been celebrated in a whimsical 1976 public-arts project—Mags Harries's Asaroton, a Greek word meaning "unswept floors," a term used for Roman floor mosaics depicting banquet debris—consisting of bronze fruit peels and other detritus smashed into pavement. Another Harries piece, a bronze depiction of a gathering of stray gloves, tumbles down between the escalators in the Porter Square T station in Cambridge. At Creek Square, near the Haymarket, is the Boston Stone. Set into a brick wall, this was allegedly a marker used as milepost zero in measuring distances from Boston.

Brattle Street's seven houses known as "Tory Row" were once occupied by wealthy families linked by friendship, if not blood. Portions of this house may have been built as early as 1636. In 1737 it was purchased by John Vassall Sr.; four years later he sold it to his younger brother Henry and his wife Penelope. It was used as a hospital during the Revolution, and the traitor Dr. Benjamin Church was held here as a prisoner. The house was remodeled during the 19th century. It's now a private residence, but from the street you can view the Colonial home with its black-shuttered windows and multiple dormers.

Literary fans (and those particularly fond of Moby-Dick) will want to visit this historical 18th-century house where Herman Melville lived and wrote his most famous works. After viewing all the exhibits, take a walk around the meadow that boasts over 100 species of wildflowers, hike a trail, or just enjoy the majestic view of Mt. Greylock, the inspiration for Melville's white whale.   Mid-May through October, guided tours are offered on the hour beginning at 10 am with the last tour at 3 pm. November through mid-May, guided tours are available Saturday at 11 am. 

Herring Cove Beach is relatively calm and warm for a National Seashore beach, but it's not as pretty as some because its parking lot isn't hidden behind dunes. It's close to town, so in warm weather it's always crowded. The lot to the right of the bathhouse is a great place to watch the sunset. Daily parking is $25; the annual seashore pass grants access to all six national park beaches and costs $60. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); toilets; showers. Best for: sunset; swimming; walking.

Home to the Truro Historical Society, the 1907 Highland House was once a grand summer hotel in its time, boasting of many private rooms, meals, and even one shared indoor bathroom. Now a museum, each season a new exhibition highlights Truro's rich history; upstairs you can see how early settlers lived and the unique industries they created to survive. There is also a room dedicated to Edward and Jo Hopper and their art and lives in Truro. Throughout the summer, talks, live music events, and children's programs are offered.

Truly a breathtaking sight, this is the Cape's oldest lighthouse. The first light on this site, powered by 24 whale-oil lamps, began warning ships of Truro's treacherous sandbars in 1797—the dreaded Peaked Hills Bars, to the north, had claimed hundreds of ships. The current light, a 66-foot tower built in 1857, is powered by two 1,000-watt bulbs reflected by a huge Fresnel lens; its beacon is visible for more than 20 miles.

One of four active lighthouses on the Outer Cape, Highland Light has the distinction of being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Henry David Thoreau used it as a stopover in his travels across the Cape's backside (as the Atlantic side is called). Twenty-minute tours of the lighthouse are given daily in summer. Children must be 48 inches tall to enter.

The headquarters of the History Cambridge historical society, this Georgian mansion was built in 1685 and is one of the oldest houses in New England. It has been remodeled at least six times while still maintaining much of the original structure. The downstairs is elegantly, although sparsely, appointed with period books, portraits, and wallpaper. An upstairs bedroom has been furnished with period antiques, some belonging to the original residents. Check the website for special events including public art installations, and to see a virtual tour of the house.

Themed (fall foliage, Christmas, and Easter) hour-long train rides make the 10-mile journey between Adams and North Adams in restored historic cars. All trains depart from (and return to) Adams Station.

Immortalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, this site is itself a historic treasure. Built in 1668 and also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, the house includes the famous secret staircase, a re-creation of Hepzibah's scent shop from The House of Seven Gables, and some of the finest Georgian interiors in the country. Also on the property is the small house where Hawthorne was born in 1804; built in 1750, it was moved from its original location a few blocks away. To visit the house, you must join a guided tour.

About 4 miles south of the town center, you can pick raspberries from Labor Day to mid-October and pumpkins late September–October. Locals have snatched up the farm's famous sweet corn for decades.

This massive, multiuse complex injected some life into the West End when it opened a few years back. It's easy to reach from anywhere in the city since it's attached to North Station. With a hotel (citizenM), cinema (AMC Causeway 13), a concert space and nightclub, dozens of dining options, and the TD Garden sports arena, there is no shortage of things to do.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston's seasonal outpost first opened in 2018 after renovations to a dilapidated former copper-pipe facility in East Boston's working shipyard and marina. Every summer, a single large-scale, immersive art installation makes the 15,000-square-foot space its own. A smaller gallery delves into the shipyard's history.

At the intersection of Cambridge and Hampshire streets, Inman Square has a great cluster of restaurants, cafés, bars, and shops. This place is just plain cool. Sadly, there's no T service to Inman, but you can get here from Harvard Square or Central Square on foot.

Bring the kids to this 600-acre farm whose family-friendly activities include games and tractor rides. Seasonal offerings range from pick-your-own pumpkins (mid-September–October) to cut-your-own Christmas trees (late November–late December) and a petting farm from late June through August. For a real treat, catch a weekend brunch (late February–early April) with homemade maple syrup atop pancakes, waffles, and French toast.

Part of Boston's Emerald Necklace, Jamaica Pond is a delightful way to escape from the city and enjoy nature. A 1.5-mile paved path running entirely around the large pond—which is actually a glacial kettle hole—is a big draw for walkers and joggers. The pond is stocked with trout and salmon each year and those with a permit can fish. From May to October, Courageous Sailing operates out of the Boat House and provides lessons and equipment for rowing and sailing, except when youth classes are in session; call ahead to confirm. One-hour kayak and paddleboard rentals are $20; rowboats are $35; and sailboats are $45.

A short bike or shuttle-bus ride from town, Jetties Beach is popular with families because of its calm surf. It's also a good place to try out kayaks and paddleboards. The shore is a lively scene, with a playground and volleyball nets on the beach and adjacent public tennis courts. There is a boardwalk to the beach (special wheelchairs are available). You'll have a good view of passing ferries—and an even better one if you clamber out onto the jetty itself. (Careful, it's slippery.) Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: swimming; windsurfing.

In Main Street's Old Town Hall, this museum explores JFK's Cape years (1934–63) through enlarged and annotated photographs culled from the archives of the JFK Library near Boston, as well as a seven-minute video narrated by Walter Cronkite. Changing exhibits focus on various members of the family at different stages of their life and career. Events include lectures, book signings, a summer author series, and speaking engagements by those with close connections to the family, both past and present. Guided walking tours of Hyannis include stops at ancient cemeteries and public art to reflect on local history. 

This was the home of the 35th president from his birth on May 29, 1917, until 1921, when the family moved to nearby Naples and Abbottsford streets. Rose Kennedy provided the furnishings for the restored 2½-story, wood-frame structure. You can pick up a brochure for a walking tour of Kennedy's school, church, and neighborhood. To get here, take the MBTA Green Line to Coolidge Corner and walk north on Harvard Street four blocks. The house is open seasonally (usually beginning in June) and by appointment. Ongoing renovations mean parts of the home may be closed. Call in advance to confirm hours.

Believe it or not, the public is welcomed in for a visit to this architectural wonder and federal house of justice. Galleries across the courthouse feature rotating exhibitions on a variety of themes, from maritime history to the judicial system. Don't miss Ellsworth Kelly's permanent installation The Boston Panels in the courthouse's rotunda. It's not uncommon to see a tall ship or a charter vessel docked outside, in season. Book a free tour through the website.