Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks

Adams Academy (Quincy) - 8/10/2019
The Academy opened its doors in 1872 on land bequest from John Adams, and operated until 1908

Adventure Schooner (Gloucester) - 11/19/2025
This gaff rigged knockabout schooner is one of the last surviving Gloucester-based Grand Banks fishing schooners, and one of only two surviving "knockabout" fishing schooners (ships designed without bowsprits)

African Meeting House (Boston) - 9/4/1999
Built in 1806, it is now the oldest black church edifice still standing in the U.S.

American Antiquarian Society (Worcester) - 7/15/2019
Founded in 1812, it is a national research library of pre-twentieth century American history and culture, and the oldest historical society in the U.S. with a national focus

Arrowhead (Pittsfield) - 6/17/2018
The home of the author during his most productive years, 1850–1863, where he wrote some of his major works including Moby-Dick

Arthur D. Little Inc. Building (Boston) - 4/25/2016
Constructed in 1917 for the first business to be established as a consulting laboratory in the nation

Asa Gray House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Notable as the residence of several Harvard College luminaries, including the leading botanist who published the first complete work on American flora

Beacon Hill Historic District (Boston)- 4/24/2016
Named for the location of a former beacon atop the highest point in the city, it is a neighborhood of Federal-style row houses known for its narrow, gaslit streets and brick sidewalks

Beaufort (Gloucester) - 11/19/2025
Situated on the rocks overlooking Gloucester Harbor, Beauport was built in 1908 as the summer home of interior decorator and antique collector Henry Davis Sleeper

Benjamin Thompson House (Woburn) - 11/18/2025
The 1714 house was the birthplace of the inventor and scientist lauded for his discoveries receiving honors including the title Count Rumford

Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory (Milton) - 8/11/2019
The foremost structure associated with the history of weather observations in the U.S., it is home to the oldest continuous weather record in North America

Boardman House (Saugus) - 11/20/2025
This house, built in 1692, has remained little changed since the early 18th century, notable because of the remarkable amount of original building material still present in the house

Boston Athenaeum (Boston) - 4/24/2016
One of the oldest independent libraries in the U.S.

Boston Common (Boston) - 4/24/2016
50 acres comprising the oldest city park in the U.S.

Boston Light - 8/10/2019
The current lighthouse dating from 1783 is the second oldest working lighthouse in the U.S. and is the only lighthouse to still be actively staffed by the United States Coast Guard

Brook Farm (West Roxbury) - 8/11/2019
A utopian experiment in communal living in the 1840s inspired in part by the ideals of Transcendentalism

Bunker Hill Monument (Boston) - 7/8/1989
Built with granite from Quincy to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, the 221 foot obelisk was erected between 1827 and 1843 in Charlestown

Caleb Cushing House (Newburyport) - 11/19/2025
This Federalist house was the home of the diplomat and U.S. Attorney General, known for negotiating the 1844 Treaty of Wanghia, the first treaty between the U.S. and Qing China, and other diplomatic successes

Cape Ann Light Station (Rockport) - 11/19/2025
Located on Thacher Island, this 1771 light station was the last founded in the colonial era (the current lighthouses were constructed in 1861); the two lighthouses were the first to mark a navigational hazard (the island)

Captain Robert B. Forbes House (Milton) - 8/11/2019
Built in 1833 for Margaret Perkins, by her sons Captain Robert Bennet Forbes and John Murray Forbes, and their sister, an American entrepreneurial family involved in the mid to late 19th century China Trade, primarily in opium

Castle Hill (Ipswich) - 11/19/2025
This 1928 country estate, one of the finest of its type, was designed by architect David Adler with landscaping by the Olmsted Brothers firm, as a summer home for Mr. and Mrs. Richard Teller Crane, Jr.

Charles Sumner House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Notable as the home of the outspoken and aggressive political opponent of slavery

Chester Harding House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
The four-story town house built in the Federal architectural style is known for being the home of the noted portraitist

Christ Church (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Built in 1760-61, it is one of the few buildings unambiguously attributable to Peter Harrison, the first formally trained architect to work in the British colonies

Cole’s Hill (Plymouth) - 5/27/2019
The first cemetery used by the Mayflower Pilgrims near Plymouth Rock, the traditional landing site of the Pilgrims in 1620

Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room (Dalton) - 6/16/2018
Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room (Dalton)

Daniel Chester French Home and Studio (Stockbridge) - 6/16/2018
Starting in 1896, the summer estate and studio of the sculptor most famous for the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial

Daniel Webster Law Office (Marshfield) - 5/27/2019
Built in 1832 for the statesman as part of his expansive Marshfield estate, it housed part of his collection of law and agricultural books, and served as a retreat from the main house

David Sears House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
One of the first houses built of granite in the city, and designed for the prominent merchant, philanthropist, and landowner

Edward Bellamy House (Chicopee) - 6/16/2018
Starting in 1852, this was the home of the journalist and Utopian writer for most of his life, where he wrote Looking Backward

Elihu Thomson House (Swampscott) - 11/20/2025
This 1889 Georgian Revival house was the home of the inventor, pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and cofounder of General Electric for many years

Emily Dickinson House (Amherst) - 5/10/2018
The Dickinson Homestead was the birthplace and home from 1855–1886 of the poet, whose poems were discovered in her bedroom there after her death

Fairbanks House (Dedham) - 8/11/2019
Built in 1636 by Puritan settler Jonathan Fairbanks and occupied by eight generations of the family, it the oldest surviving timber-frame house in North America

Faneuil Hall (Boston) - 4/24/2016
A marketplace and a meeting hall since 1743, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain

First Church Of Christ (Lancaster) - 7/15/2019
The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch and recognized as one of his finest works

First Harrison Gray Otis House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Built in 1795, designed by Charles Bulfinch, and notable as one of the earliest three-story brick houses that came to represent the Federal style of architecture

Fort Warren (Boston) - 9/3/1999
A pentagonal bastion fort constructed from 1833–1861, defending the harbor from 1861 through WWII

Francis Parkman House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
One of a series of fine brick townhouses on Beacon Hill, significant for the ownership and occupancy by the noted historian and horticulturalist

Frederick Law Olmsted House (Brookline) - 9/5/1999
Known as “Fairsted” it is the world's first full-scale professional office for the practice of landscape design by the “founder of American landscape architecture”

Fruitlands (Harvard) - 7/15/2019
A Utopian agrarian commune by Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane in the 1840s, based on Transcendentalist principles

Gardiner-Pingree House (Salem) - 11/19/2025
Salem merchant John Gardner had this Federalist-style house built in 1804–05 by Samuel McIntire; it was the site of the notorious 1830 murder of Capt. Joseph White, whose death prompted a famous trial prosecuted by Daniel Webster

General Benjamin Lincoln House (Hingham) - 8/10/2019
With portions dated to the 1630s, it was the birthplace and principal residence of the Continental Army Major General

General John Glover House (Marblehead) - 11/19/2025
Built in 1762, and occupied by the wealthy Marblehead merchant, who was an important figure in the Revolution, leading the Marblehead Regiment and early efforts to establish the Continental Navy

General Rufus Putnam House (Rutland) - 7/15/2019
Built in 1760, starting in 1781 it was the home of the French and Indian War military officer and Continental Army general

George D. Birkhoff House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Notable for its association with the Harvard University Professor, one of the most important mathematicians of his time

Goddard Rocket Launching Site (Auburn) - 7/15/2019
Commemorates the 1926 launch site of the world's first successful liquid-fueled rocket

Gropius House (Lincoln) - 7/14/2019
The 1937 family residence of the Bauhaus architect, with the house including a substantial collection of Bauhaus-related materials

H. H. Richardson Historic District (Easton) - 5/26/2019
Five buildings designed by noted 19th-century architect, and a war memorial designed by Frederick Law Olmsted

Hamilton Hall (Salem) - 11/19/2025
Named for the Party leader, this 1805 building by Samuel McIntire served Salem's Federalist Party activities and has been described as "one of the most outstanding Federal-era public buildings" in the nation

Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield) - 5/11/2018
A former Shaker village that was established in 1791, the third of 19 such villages established between 1783 and 1836 in NY, New England, KY, OH and IN

House of the Seven Gables Historic District (Salem) - 8/23/1996
The district includes the 1668 Colonial mansion built for Capt. John Turner and eight other buildings

Jacob’s Pillow Dance (Becket) - 5/11/2018
A dance center, school and performance space known for the oldest internationally acclaimed summer dance festival in the U.S.

Jeremiah Lee House (Marblehead) - 11/19/2025
The 1768 Georgian mansion was built by the wealthiest merchant and ship owner in the Province of Massachusetts Bay

John Adams Birthplace (Quincy) - 9/3/1999
The saltbox home in which the President was born on October 30, 1735, only a few feet away from the birthplace of his son John Quincy

John and Priscilla Alden Family Sites (Duxbury) - 5/27/2019
Two separate properties significant for their association with one of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony who came to North America on board the Mayflower

John B. Gough House (Boylston) - 7/15/2019
Significant as the home of the temperance orator, and as an excellent example of Italianate architecture

John F. Kennedy Birthplace (Brookline) - 9/4/1999
The birthplace and childhood home of the future President

John Greenleaf Whittier House (Amesbury) - 6/13/2021
The 1811 house was the home of the poet and abolitionist from 1836 until his death in 1892

John Quincy Adams Birthplace (Quincy) - 9/3/1999
The saltbox home in which the President was born in 1767, only a few feet away from the birthplace of his father John

John Ward House (Salem) - 11/19/2025
The building, started in 1684, with owner John Ward making several modifications to it, stands as a fine example of the organic growth of early colonial houses

John Whipple House (Ipswich) - 11/19/2025
Construction of the three-story wood-frame First Period house was begun by Captain John Whipple in 1677; it has been open as a museum since 1899 and was the subject of early attempts at the preservation of colonial houses

Joseph Story House (Salem) - 11/19/2025
The 1811 Federalist style home was built for the influential United States Supreme Court Justice on the John Marshall court

Josiah Quincy House (Quincy) - 8/10/2019
The 1770 country home of the Revolutionary War soldier who aided General George Washington by observing the British fleet in Boston Harbor from his attic windows

King’s Chapel (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Formerly called "Stone Chapel", this 1754 structure of architectural significance is one of the finest designs of the noted colonial architect Peter Harrison

Liberty Farm (Worcester) - 7/15/2019
The home for most of their married life of Abby Kelley Foster and Stephen Symonds Foster, early vocal abolitionists and women's rights activists

Lightship No. 112 “Nantucket” - 8/10/2019
Launched in 1936, she was the last serving lightship and served as the lightship for such notable vessels as SS United States, RMS Queen Mary, and SS Normandie

Long Wharf and Customhouse Block (Boston) - 9/3/1999
Both were part of "the busiest pier in the busiest port in America during early colonial times”

Longfellow House (Cambridge) - 8/22/1996
The home, built in 1759, of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who owned it starting in 1843

Lowell Locks and Canals Historic District (Lowell) - 6/14/2021
The Historic District includes all of Lowell’s 5.6-mile canal system, associated dams, locks, gatehouses, millyards, and corporation boardinghouses.

Lowell’s Boat Shop NHL (Amesbury) - 6/13/2021
Considered to be the birthplace of the legendary New England fishing dory, later further developed into the simplified Banks dory design, a mainstay of New England's fishing fleets

Lydia Pinkham House (Lynn) - 11/20/2025
This 1872 Second Empire house was the residence of the maker of homemade herbal remedy for dysmenorrhea, one of the bestselling such medical products of the late 19th century

Margaret Fuller House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
The birthplace and childhood home of the American transcendentalist

Maria Baldwin House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Notable as the home of the educator when she served as the first female African-American principal in a Massachusetts school

Mary Baker Eddy House (Lynn) - 11/20/2025
The home of the discover and founder of Christian Science from 1875 to 1883, including when the first edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was published in 1875

Mary Fisk Stoughton House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Designed in 1882 by Henry Hobson Richardson in what is now called the Shingle Style, and was a significant influence in the growth in popularity of that style in the late 19th century

Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
The oldest surviving building at Harvard College, the first institution of higher learning in the British colonies in America, and second oldest academic building in the U.S.

Massachusetts Statehouse (Boston) - 4/24/2016
A masterpiece of Federal architecture, it is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth

Memorial Hall, Harvard University (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
An imposing High Victorian Gothic building honoring the sacrifices made by Harvard men in defense of the Union during the Civil War

Mission House (Stockbridge) - 6/17/2018
Built in 1739 by a Christian missionary to the local Mohicans, in the 1920s the house was purchased by Mabel Choate, owner of the nearby Naumkeag estate, and moved down into the valley

The Mount (Lenox) - 6/17/2018
The 1902 home of the noted author, who designed the house and its grounds and considered it her "first real home"

Nathan and Mary (Polly) Johnson Properties (New Bedford) - 5/27/2019
The two properties are significant for their association with leading members of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts, and as the only surviving residence in New Bedford of Frederick Douglass

Nathan Appleton Residence (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Associated with the revolutionary textile manufacturer, and as the site in 1843 of the wedding of his daughter Frances and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Nathaniel Bowditch House (Salem) - 11/19/2025
This 1759 Federalist house was the home of the founder of 19th century navigation, and is distinctive as having been owned by three families important in the maritime history of Salem

Naumkeag (Stockbridge) - 6/16/2018
Designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, and constructed in 1886, this is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate

New Bedford Historic District (New Bedford) - 7/4/1999
The center of the American whaling industry

Norfolk County Courthouse (Dedham) - 8/11/2019
A well-preserved Greek Revival courthouse of the 1820s and the site a century later of the famous Sacco-Vanzetti trial

Old City Hall (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Home to Boston’s city council from 1865 to 1969, it was one of the first buildings in the French Second Empire style to be built in the U.S.

Old Deerfield (Deerfield) - 5/10/2018
Dedicated to the heritage and preservation of Deerfield and history of the Connecticut River Valley, The area provides visitors with an understanding of New England's historic villages and countryside

Old Manse (Concord) - 7/14/2019
Famous for its historical and literary associations, including R. W. Emerson (whose family witnessed the 1775 North Bridge fight from the upper windows) and Nathaniel Hawthorne

Old North Church (Boston) - 7/8/1989
The location from which the famous "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent and the oldest active church building in Boston

Old Ship Meetinghouse (Hingham) - 8/10/2019
Built in 1681, it is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in America

Old South Meeting House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
A historic church that gained fame as the organizing point for the 1773 Boston Tea Party

Old State House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Built in 1713, it was the seat of the Massachusetts General Court until 1798, and is one of the oldest public buildings in the U.S.

Old West Church (Boston)- 4/24/2016
Built in 1806 to designs by architect Asher Benjamin, it is a monumentally-scaled example of ecclesiastical Federal architecture

Oliver Hastings House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
The home of the local builder and noted as an excellent example of Greek Revival architecture

Orchard House (Concord) - 7/14/2019
The longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott and his family, including his daughter Louisa May, who wrote and set her novel Little Women there

The Parsonage (Natick) - 7/14/2019
Noted as the home of Horatio Alger, the well-known writer of popular juvenile fiction

Parson Capen House (Topsfield) - 11/19/2025
This well preserved circa 1683 house was home to Reverend Joseph Capen, Topsfield's minister for many years, including during the witch trials of 1692

Paul Revere House (Boston) - 7/8/1989
The colonial home of the patriot during the time of the Revolution

Peabody Museum of Salem (Salem) - 8/23/1996 (photo 11/19/2025)
Originated in the mid-19th century as the Peabody Academy of Science, in 1992 the museum merged with the Essex Institute to form the Peabody Essex Museum

Percy Bridgman House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
The home of the physicist, Nobel Prize winner, and Harvard University professor

Pierce-Hichborn House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
A 1711 early Georgian house and one of the earliest surviving brick structures in Boston

Pierce-Nichols House (Salem) - 11/19/2025
This transitional Georgian/Federal style home was built in 1782 for merchant Jerathmiel Peirce by Samuel McIntire, and gives a unique view into the methods and styles of the architect

PT-617 (Torpedo Boat) (Fall River) - 5/26/2019
The sole surviving 80' Elco type PT boat, representing the U.S.'s most heavily used, highly favored, and combat-tested PT boat type in World War II

PT-796 (Torpedo Boat) (Fall River) - 5/26/2019
A 78-foot PT boat built by Higgins Industries of New Orleans in 1945 and one of a very few surviving PT boats

Quincy Homestead (Quincy) - 8/10/2019
Originally built in 1686, it was the childhood home of the first First Lady of Massachusetts, Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott, wife of John Hancock

Quincy Market (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Built in 1824 it is one of the largest market complexes built in the U.S. in the first half of the 19th century

Ralph Waldo Emerson House (Concord) - 7/14/2019
Noted for its association with the author/philosopher who lived there 1835 to his death in 1882

Reginald A. Daly House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Notable for its association with the eminent geologist, Penrose Medal winner, and Harvard University professor

Samuel Gridley and Julia Ward Howe House (Boston)- 4/24/2016
A historic rowhouse in the Beacon Hill neighborhood associated with the social reform couple

Saugus Iron Works (Saugus) - 9/9/1995
The 1646 site of the first integrated ironworks in North America

Sever Hall, Harvard University (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Designed as an academic building with classrooms, lecture halls, rooms for professors, etc., in a style now known as Richardsonian Romanesque

Spencer-Peirce-Little House (Newburyport) - 11/19/2025
On a Colonial American farm originally granted to John Spencer, this is a rare example of a 17th-century (1690) stone house in New England, relatively unchanged despite additions over the centuries

Springfield Armory (Springfield) - 8/16/1996
Starting in 1777, the primary center for the manufacture of U.S. military firearms and featuring one of the world's largest collections of historic firearms

St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) (Boston) - 4/24/2016
The first Greek Revival church in New England

Theodore W. Richards House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
The home until his death of the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy) - 8/10/2019
Started in 1882 and noted for its architecture, it was funded by the Crane family as a memorial to the wealthy stone contractor who got his start in the Quincy quarries

Tremont Street Subway (Boston) - 4/24/2016
The oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third oldest system worldwide to exclusively use electric traction

Union Oyster House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Open to diners since 1826, is amongst the oldest continuously operating restaurants in the U.S.

United First Parish Church (Unitarian) Of Quincy - 9/3/1999
A Unitarian Universalist congregation, established as the parish church of Quincy in 1639, with Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams interred in crypts beneath it

United States Customhouse (New Bedford) - 5/26/2019
The 1834 Greek Revival style structure has been used by the U.S. Customs Service ever since, and today serves as a port of entry

University Hall, Harvard University (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Designed by the great early American architect Charles Bulfinch, it originally contained the College Commons, a library and philosophical apparatus, and a chapel

USS Constitution (Frigate) (Boston) - 7/8/1989
Also known as “Old Ironsides”, she is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate and the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel

USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (Fall River) - 5/26/2019
A former Gearing-class destroyer, named a naval aviator, son of the former Ambassador to Britain

USS Lionfish (SS-298)(Fall River) - 5/26/2019
A Balao-class submarine built near the end of WWII, it was the only U.S. Navy ship named for the lionfish, a scorpaenid fish native to the Pacific

USS Massachusetts (BB-59)(Fall River) - 5/26/2019
The third of four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the U.S. Navy in the 1930s, she served mostly in the Pacific in WWII

W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite (Great Barrington) - 5/11/2018
The site contains foundational remnants of the home of the African American intellectual and civil rights activist’s grandfather, where Du Bois lived for the first five years of his life

Walden Pond (Concord) - 9/5/1999
A kettle hole formed by retreating glaciers 10,000–12,000 years ago and best known as the home of writer, transcendentalist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau

The Wayside (Concord) - 7/14/2019
The 1717 house which from 1845 successively became the home of young Louisa May Alcott and her family, author Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family, and children's writer Margaret Sidney

William C. Nell House (Boston) - 4/24/2016
A boarding home located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, typical of homes built before 1803 and of many of the African Americans who lived in the city at that time

William Cullen Bryant Homestead (Cummington) - 6/16/2018
Originally built in 1783 by Bryant's grandfather, this was the boyhood home and later summer residence of one of America's foremost poets and newspaper editors

William H. Prescott House (Headquarters House) (Boston) - 4/24/2016
Named for the nearly blind historian from a prominent Boston family, who lived there from 1845 to 1859

William J. Rotch Gothic Cottage (New Bedford) - 5/27/2019
The 1845 Gothic Revival cottage was built for the member of one of New Bedford's leading whaling families

William Morris Davis House (Cambridge) - 4/25/2016
Notable as the home of the professor of geology at Harvard University, an influential figure in the development of meteorology and geomorphology as scientific disciplines

William Rotch, Jr. House (New Bedford) - 5/27/2019
Now the Rotch–Jones–Duff House, the three families whose names are attached to it were all closely tied to the city's 19th century dominance of the whaling industry

Wrights Tavern (Concord) - 7/14/2019
The historic 1747 tavern with important associations with the Battle of Lexington and Concord at the start of the American Revolution