Hanover information

[maggiekate]

Originally Posted by raveabouttoast

As far as commuting to Boston on the train, I would recommend going to Braintree or Quincy Adams for the Red Line. Abington is the Commuter Rail, which is generally more expensive (~ $14 round trip vs $5) and on a less frequent schedule.

Traffic on Route 3 North will start to get heavy after Hanover heading toward Quincy, but it's only a few exits and won't be as bad as driving all the way into Boston.

I have been away from the area for awhile but was wondering if the plymouth brockton bus line
has any stops near the area that might work as going the other direction to get the bus,

[raveabouttoast]

I didn't think of the bus, but there is a park & ride in Rockland (exit 14 across from the Home Depot).

Here's the schedule to Boston: P & B Weekday Schedule to Boston & Logan Airport

[n1ey]

Originally Posted by chaxey

One thing to keep in mind about Hanover is the flirtation of deeming the old Fireworks industrial site on the south side of town a 'Superfund' site. For the uninitiated, this would open up the availability for federal dollars to clean up the pollution in this watershed area. The town is divided on this, as the declaration will undoubtedly put property values into a tail spin; on the flip side... if the pollution there is affecting the water supply... it obviouslly needs to be cleaned up and this would be impossible to do without the federal funds.

Personally, if you're considering Hanover, I'd also look to perhaps find a fixer-upper in near by Norwell. It's slightly more convenient to Boston than Hanover and affords you the ability to cross over to Scituate to take that commuter rail line to Boston. The schools there are marginally better than Hanover (some would consider them to be significantly better) and the security of home values remaining strong is nearly a guarantee. Even during the great recession, Norwell remained essentially flat as far as median home prices.

My impression of the school systems in both towns is not very high. I would rate Hanover as having the better system of the pair.

I think that the quality of the water is in question. The water has never been cleaned. Explaining that the place is a fireworks site might be just a tad limiting. I believe that it was an ammunition plant for many DECADES. They would have dumped heavy metals.

I believe that the train rolled from the Hanover railroad(now partly bike way) to North Abington. From North Abington the cars would be taken by a train to the yards in Braintree. From Braintree they would be rolled to the various naval bases such as the South Boston Naval Annex, Hingham, or the Wompatuck storage facility. There was some serious capacity.

I would actually question buying almost anything in Hanson due to the proximity of the dump site and being situated downstream of the Hanover plant area.

Supposedly, a selectperson in Hanover owns land which would be potentially affected.

Bill

[Jamesnana]

Don't know where you are getting your info, but the Norwell schools are superb, quite a bit better than Hanover which rate 8/10 and the high school is a 9. (brand new) Norwell 's average a 10/10.

[n1ey]

Originally Posted by Jamesnana

Don't know where you are getting your info, but the Norwell schools are superb, quite a bit better than Hanover which rate 8/10 and the high school is a 9. (brand new) Norwell 's average a 10/10.

No one should pay attention to any website ranking, which is based on conjecture from parents driving in BMW vehicles. One should consider the actual state of their students.

Norwell is infamous for "do not give a F" policy. The highest paid salary in the Norwell teaching staff has been attributed to the football coach for years. You should be able to infer the real policies of Norwell from this. The library is substandard for a town of such "standing." Norwell had historically been a dump in which poor people could buy houses. The economic shift occurred in the 1990's. Look at the quality of the original homes on Old Oaken Bucket; this was not a rich community with a thriving school system.

It is a mish-mash.

Hanover has a new High School and a good track record.

I would not be impressed with any of these schools. Many of these schools fudge the rankings. I hope that you realize that the drop-out rate in Massachusetts is significantly higher than usually reported number. The outliers are city systems such as Boston, Fall River, Worcester, Lowell, & New Bedford. Most of the schools are actually very similar to each other. The demographics and capability of the students do not vary significantly from Newton to Hanover.

None of the schools on the south shore stand by leaps and bounds better than another school. I would only suggest the exceptions as the systems such as Abington or Holbrook. They are worse. Abington's violence record and suspension record is high; this is indicative of the issues within the school. The quality of the buildings in Holbrook is very poor. The morale within different systems is also very low; most of the teachers lose hopes when they do not receive their mandated annual 3% raise.

Bill