Best cities for history buffs to visit (other than Boston)? (Springfield: to rent, houses)

[Wordsmith12]

My wife and I are trying to decide where to vacation this summer (6 night-stay). I'm a huge history buff, so I'm always interested in visiting those cities steeped in history.

We've already visited:
- Boston
- New York City
- Washington, D.C.
- Philadelphia
- Williamsburg, VA

The ones in the running for this summer are:
- Maryland (Baltimore, Annapolis) -- frontrunner at the moment
- New Jersey (Princeton, Trenton, Morristown)
- Charleston, SC

Are there any historic cities in Massachusetts excluding Boston that you'd recommend we visit?

From what I've gathered so far, Quincy might be a good choice because of the Adams homes. I know about Salem, but I'd probably skip it since I'm not a huge fan of the witch trials. Then there's Lexington and Concord.

Could Quincy, Lexington, and Concord all be visited in one trip if staying for 6 nights? I generally prefer cities that have more of a city vibe (e.g., loved Philly but didn't like the small town, middle-of-nowhere feel of Williamsburg), so does that mean I may not like them?

Thanks in advance.

[missionhill]

Have you been on the national park service website? That’s hugely helpful for understanding what’s available in places like Salem and Lexington-Concord, probably Quincy too. Salem Maritime national historic site commemorates the maritime history of Salem whereas the witch history is very commercialized. Between the NPS site and the Peabody Essex museum you can take in a lot of history without a thought of witches. Concord and Lex have the Minuteman National Historical Park. Lots of good info on the park websites for both Salem and Minuteman to help you evaluate where to go. Both places also have other historic places, like the Thoreau and the Alcott sites in Concord and the Nathaniel Hawthorne house of seven gables site in Salem. As you say Quincy has the Adams family . There’s also the national historical site in Lowell that commemorates early industrial history. All these places are in a built up metropolitan ring around Boston-Cambridge so it wouldn’t be at all like Williamsburg VA.

Of course it’s hard to compete with Charleston S. C.— What a great place that is! Maybe better to visit in spring or fall when not so hot but there’s so much to see and do in and around Charleston.

[CaseyB]

Don't forget Plymouth. Yes, you can do it all in 6 days.

[Boston Shudra]

I LOVE Charleston, but I’ve only been in the winter and spring. I imagine that it might be stifling in the summer. You could maybe also check out Savannah if you pursue that route.

I also love Baltimore. Fells Point is gorgeous, and Mt Vernon and Federal Hill have some nice old architecture as well. Lots of great restaurants around the Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill too. My relatives who live in the area took me to Bertha’s last time I was there, and I’d recommend it. Never been to Annapolis, but I’ve heard good things.

Of the NJ towns you listed, the only one I’ve been to is Princeton. The University is pretty, but I don’t remember the actual town being much of a draw. It’s been a while since I visited so I might be misremembering.

You can definitely do Concord, Lexington, and Quincy in a day or two. All three are functionally suburbs of Boston these days. Lexington and Quincy in particular don’t have terribly expansive or interesting downtown areas. Concord has the best downtown area of the three imo.

Salem and Lowell are also interesting historic towns in the area with larger downtowns. The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem is a personal favorite of mine. The House of the Seven Gables is also pretty neat. There’re more reasons to visit Salem than the witch history (though that is a big part of the town’s identity).

Other honorable mentions for nice towns and cities near Boston that could make good summer day trips: Cape Ann (particularly Gloucester and Rockport), Portsmouth, Portland, Providence, Newport, and Provincetown. You’d need to rent a car to get to Newport I believe. The rest are accessible by train or ferry.

*Edit: totally didn’t realize what forum this was. Lol whoops!

[massnative71]

Don't forget New Bedford/Fairhaven, especially if you are into architecture (it's literally like a museum for it).

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

Other honorable mentions for nice towns and cities near Boston that could make good summer day trips: Cape Ann (particularly Gloucester and Rockport), Portsmouth, Portland, Providence, Newport, and Provincetown. You’d need to rent a car to get to Newport I believe. The rest are accessible by train or ferry.

Shockingly, I've lived in the Boston area almost my entire life and the 1 year I lived outside of Boston I lived in Rhode Island yet I had never visited Newport until this past week. I was there for two days and I was absolutely blown away by the amount of things there is to do there and most of it's history oriented.

The various mansions you can tour are absolutely amazing. The amount of history in these homes is absolutely amazing not to mention that I was completely in awe of the craftsmanship and jaw dropping excess of these homes.

Once you get done with all the mansions (I think there's 5 maybe 7 of them and you can spend a couple hours in the larger ones and touring the grounds), then there's the Tennis Hall of Fame, the Historical Society, the Newport Synagogue, the car museum, and much, much more. The two days I spent there was nowhere near enough to really see it all.

Plus, if you go during the right weekends they have all kinds of festivals that center on various things from strawberries to jazz that you can enjoy.

[mdovell]

There's other historical sites. Springfield has the armory, basketball hall of fame, Holyoke has volleyball hall of fame, a fair amount of mansion tours. Further west you have the Edith Wharton House. Hartford has Mark Twains house. New Haven has Yale.

The north shore has the Crain estate

[turkeydance]

Florida,
if you like the 1500 Conquistadores.

[missionhill]

Originally Posted by mdovell

There's other historical sites. Springfield has the armory, basketball hall of fame, Holyoke has volleyball hall of fame, a fair amount of mansion tours. Further west you have the Edith Wharton House. Hartford has Mark Twains house. New Haven has Yale.

The north shore has the Crain estate

If you were interested in getting out to Western Mass historic Deerfield is really the place to go. Beautiful spot, very low key presentation, many very old houses and landscapes, and you get a sense of what colonists and natives were fighting over.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by missionhill

If you were interested in getting out to Western Mass historic Deerfield is really the place to go. Beautiful spot, very low key presentation, many very old houses and landscapes, and you get a sense of what colonists and natives were fighting over.

I was just going to say that. Stay at the Deerfield Inn, tour some of the homes in Historic Deerfield, visit their wonderful museum--and see the hatchet gashes still in the door from the Deerfield Massacre of 1704. You can later head down to Northampton for a large assortment of interesting restaurants. I could spend a few days in Deerfield and I have a couple of the books about the captives who were marched through the snow to Canada after they were captured. Going there is a very interesting history lesson. It's not a city though, and it's definitely not Boston. It is western Massachusetts, Connecticut River Valley. If you are interested at all in architecture, this is one of the best spots and it focuses on the 18th C. It's dripping with history.