Traditional New England Towns in Massachusetts or New Hampshire (Boston: condos, homes)

[moppieda]

My husband and I are relocating from overseas to either Massachusetts or New Hamshire. We prefer a smaller traditional New England town with the classic historical buildings and architecture rather than the bedroom communties that are found outside most of the bigger cities. Our problem is locating these towns. We would be very grateful to anyone who may have some local knowledge or suggestions. Thank you.

[mels]

Stockbridge or Great Barrington in western Mass are very New England-y.

[Miker2069]

Wow you'll find tons really. If you want the small quaint kind of town, you can try Littleton, MA or Acton,MA all on the route 2. I lived in Acton and enjoyed it. If you're single, probably it's too quiet. It has grown a bit but nothing huge.

Chelmsford,MA is also nice

In the winter time, the first snow it's like driving down a norman rockwell painting . However by March it's dirty snow

There's plenty of nice places, hope you find one.

[kaday]

Lenox and Lee in Western Mass are very nice. Pittsfield is up and coming after a long decline. The downtown is sprucing up and housing bargains can be found. The Southeast area of Pittsfield is very nice.

[ontheroad]

And moving East, so many of the towns along the Coast--Newburyport, Rockport and much more!

And over the NH border, nothing more picture perfect, albeit trendy, Portsmouth,NH.

[winnie]

Sturbridge, West Brookfield, some parts of Belchertown are quaint, Hadley, Greenfield, Deerfield to name a few.

[smokeyjoe]

How small is smaller? How near to Boston do you need to be? Here are five central New England towns that fit your description of a "smaller traditional New England town with the classic historical buildings and architecture":

1. Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire
2. Northfield, Massachusetts
3. Petersham, Massachusetts
4. Hancock, New Hampshire
5. Royalston, Massachusetts

All five are classic colonial villages that look much the same today as they did 150 years ago. All are small towns (about 1,000 - 2,000 people) and 90 minutes or more from Boston. If this works for you, you should check these towns out.

[moppieda]

Thank you everyone so much for your input. We'll start checking out all of the towns and see what works.

Smokeyjoe, we're not sure how small of a town we prefer--just that the town is quaint and has character. It's so difficult these days not to end up in a suburb with new construction. Eventhough the homes are always very nice in these communities, we're really not the suburb or bedroom community type of family. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my email. I really appreciate it.

[BuddyT]

How about the oldest contiguous English settlement in the US? From 1620, yes it's Plymouth, America's Home Town.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by moppieda

It's so difficult these days not to end up in a suburb with new construction. Eventhough the homes are always very nice in these communities, we're really not the suburb or bedroom community type of family. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my email. I really appreciate it.

You are correct. Who would know the city of Angels (LA) has 10X the population of MA 200 years ago? Who would know the farms in Southborough, MA would be bedroom community to Boston 30 years ago? Even in Florida, orange farmers are selling land to build condos nowadays.

I often wonder why we want so much land for our house. Ah... yes... so we can keep out neighbors away.