Places You Can Visit
Historic Sites in Massachusetts
Explore 29 historic places in Massachusetts, from museums and landmarks to destinations connected with defining events and eras in American history.
Historic Destinations in Massachusetts
Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum
Boston, MA
An immersive waterfront museum uses costumed interpreters, replica ships, interactive exhibits, and an original tea chest to recreate the Boston Tea Party.
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Faneuil Hall
Boston, MA
Boston’s historic market and meeting hall has served for nearly three centuries as a stage for debates over liberty, abolition, suffrage, labor, and civic life.
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Lexington Battle Green
Lexington, MA
The historic common where Lexington militia and British regulars exchanged the opening gunfire of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.
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Alden House Historic Site
Duxbury, MA
A National Historic Landmark in Duxbury preserving the Alden family homestead, archaeological remains, and the legacy of Mayflower passengers John and Priscilla Alden.
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Atwood Museum
Chatham, MA
A preserved 1752 sea captain’s home and expanded museum campus interpreting centuries of Chatham and Cape Cod history.
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Battleship Cove
Fall River, MA
A waterfront fleet museum where visitors can board landmark American warships spanning World War II through the Vietnam era.
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Borderland State Park and Ames Mansion
North Easton, MA
A former Ames family country estate pairing an early-twentieth-century stone mansion with designed grounds, ponds, and miles of recreational trails.
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Boston Fire Museum
Boston, MA
A free museum inside an 1891 firehouse preserves antique apparatus, alarms, artifacts, and stories from Boston’s pioneering professional fire department.
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Boston Massacre Site
Boston, MA
A circular pavement marker outside the Old State House identifies the place where British soldiers killed five colonists on March 5, 1770.
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Buckman Tavern
Lexington, MA
A preserved colonial tavern where Lexington militiamen gathered before confronting British troops on April 19, 1775.
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Essex Shipbuilding Museum
Essex, MA
A working maritime museum on a historic Essex River shipyard that preserves the town’s renowned wooden shipbuilding tradition.
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Fort Revere Park
Hull, MA
A hilltop harbor-defense site preserving military remains from the American Revolution through the world-war era.
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Framingham History Center
Framingham, MA
A three-building historic campus on Framingham Centre Common preserving more than four centuries of community history.
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Hancock-Clarke House
Lexington, MA
The Lexington parsonage where Paul Revere warned John Hancock and Samuel Adams that British troops were approaching.
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Jabez Howland House
Plymouth, MA
A rare surviving 17th-century Plymouth home associated directly with Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley and their son Jabez.
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John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Boston, MA
An I. M. Pei-designed presidential library on Boston Harbor that brings John F. Kennedy’s life, administration, and enduring civic legacy into vivid focus.
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Minute Man National Historical Park
Lincoln, MA
A preserved landscape of battlefields, roads, bridges, and historic homes where the American Revolution began on April 19, 1775.
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Mount Auburn Cemetery
Cambridge, MA
America’s pioneering garden cemetery combines nationally significant history, notable monuments, and a richly planted landscape overlooking Greater Boston.
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Museum of Printing
Haverhill, MA
A hands-on museum tracing the evolution of printing, typography, graphic arts, and communication technology.
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Old North Church & Historic Site
Boston, MA
Boston's oldest surviving church building, renowned for the two lanterns displayed from its steeple on the eve of the American Revolution.
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Old South Meeting House
Boston, MA
The 1729 meeting house where thousands debated British taxation before the gathering spilled into the streets and became the Boston Tea Party.
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Old State House
Boston, MA
Boston’s 1713 seat of royal government, overlooking the Boston Massacre site and the balcony where independence was proclaimed to the city.
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Paul Revere House
Boston, MA
The compact 17th-century North End home where Paul Revere lived during the years surrounding his famous revolutionary ride.
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Pilgrim Hall Museum
Plymouth, MA
A landmark Plymouth museum founded in 1824 that preserves an exceptional collection of original Mayflower-era objects and interprets both English and Wampanoag histories.
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Plimoth Patuxet Museums
Plymouth, MA
An immersive living-history museum exploring 17th-century Wampanoag and English life through recreated communities, historic interpretation, Mayflower II, and a working grist mill.
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Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Concord, MA
A picturesque nineteenth-century cemetery in Concord best known for Authors Ridge and the graves of leading American writers and thinkers.
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Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
Adams, MA
The restored Adams farmhouse where Susan B. Anthony was born explores the childhood influences and reform movements that shaped a leading advocate for women’s rights.
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The Jenney Interpretive Centre
Plymouth, MA
A Plymouth interpretive center offering exhibits, presentations, and guided tours focused on the Pilgrims, their beliefs, and historic sites around the town.
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USS Constitution
Boston, MA
Board the world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat and encounter the living naval history of “Old Ironsides” with its active-duty U.S. Navy crew.
View DetailsCities to Explore in Massachusetts
Historical Eras Represented
Historical Events
1773
Boston Tea Party
Revolutionary War
Boston colonists destroyed 342 chests of East India Company tea in December 1773, provoking punitive British legislation that deepened intercolonial resistance and accelerated the crisis leading to revolution.
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1775
Battles of Lexington & Concord
Revolutionary War
British regulars and Massachusetts militia fought at Lexington, Concord, and along the Battle Road on April 19, 1775, beginning open warfare in the American Revolution.
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1621
First Thanksgiving at Plymouth
Colonial America
Plymouth colonists and about ninety Wampanoag men participated in a three-day 1621 harvest gathering whose later transformation into a national origin story often obscured Wampanoag diplomacy and experience.
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