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100 unusual facts about Massachusetts


457th Air Expeditionary Group

On Saturday, 28 July, Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith lost his way while ferrying a B-25 Mitchell bomber from Bedford, Massachusetts, to Sioux Falls AAF via Newark Airport.

Agawam, Massachusetts

Ipswich, Massachusetts was also known as Agawam during much of the 17th century, after the English name for the Agawam tribe of northeastern Massachusetts.

Albany River Rats

On February 19, 2009, five people were seriously injured when a bus carrying the team home from a game in Lowell struck a guard rail and rolled on its side on Interstate 90 in Becket, Massachusetts.

Alice Barrows

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles Dana Barrows and Marion Merrill, Alice graduated from Vassar College with an A.B. During 1901–03, she was employed as an English teacher at the Packer Collegiate Institute, then she taught English at the Ethical School in New York City from 1903–04.

Ameridose

The original location of the company's plant was in Framingham, Massachusetts next to its sister-companies New England Compounding Center and Medical Sales Management.

Arthur Stephen Lane

Born in Arlington, Massachusetts, Lane received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1934, where he received the Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, Princeton's highest undergraduate honor.

Aspen Technology

Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, Aspentech has 34 offices in 27 countries, spanning 6 continents.

Banning Lyon

In the summer of 2010 Mr. Lyon lived and worked as first mate aboard the SV Valora, a wooden schooner based out of Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts.

Bear Swamp Hydroelectric Power Station

Bear Swamp Generating Station is a pumped-storage hydroelectric underground power station that straddles the Deerfield River in Rowe and Florida, Massachusetts.

Benson Leavitt

On October 1, 1845, Mayor Thomas Aspinwall Davis wrote Board of Aldermen chairman Benson Leavitt from his home in Brookline.

Blue Hill Country Club

Blue Hill Country Club is a private country club located in Canton, Massachusetts established in 1925.

Bolide

For example, the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center of the USGS uses bolide as a generic term that describes any large crater-forming impacting body of which its composition (for example, whether it is a rocky or metallic asteroid, or an icy comet) is unknown.

Boston College–UMass football rivalry

After 22 years, the rivalry was renewed as UMass traveled to Chestnut Hill, MA to play Boston College once again.

Bread and Roses Heritage Festival

Bread and Roses is the only broadly multicultural festival in Lawrence, the Immigrant City.

Cambridge, Ohio

Both Cambridge, Maryland and Cambridge, Massachusetts have been speculated by historians as having inspired the naming of the town.

Catherine Clark Kroeger

In their latter years they resided on Cape Cod in Brewster, Massachusetts.

Charles Devens

Fort Devens in central Massachusetts, which opened in 1917, was named after him, as was its successor, the Census-designated place Devens, Massachusetts.

Charles Lenox Remond

Remond was born in Salem, Massachusetts to John Remond, a free man of color from the island of Curaçao, who was a hairdresser, and Nancy Lenox, daughter of a prominent Bostonian, a hairdresser and caterer.

Church Lawford

Church Lawford along with Cambridge, Massachusetts is said to be the inspiration for the poem as the poet visited England for a three-year trip.

Coast Guard Station Provincetown

United States Coast Guard Station Provincetown is a United States Coast Guard station located in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Cyrus Bryant

Cyrus was born in Cummington, Massachusetts in a family of Peter Bryant (1767–1820), a doctor and later a state legislator, and Sarah Snell.

Defunct townships of Cuyahoga County, Ohio

The township was first settled in 1811 by the family of one Seth Payne, who came from Williamsburg, Massachusetts, and who was soon followed by several other families.

Domenic Sarno

As part of a host agreement, MGM pledged to pay the city $25 million per year in return for permission to build an $800 million resort in the city’s South End.

Dr. Edgar Everett Dean House

Edgar Everett Dean House is an historic house at 81 Green Street in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Dudley W. Adams

Dudley Whitney Adams (November 30, 1831, Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts – February 13, 1897, Tangerine, Florida) was a horticulturalist who led the granger movement.

Eber Brock Ward

In 1861 Ward and Zoheth S. Durfee of New Bedford, Massachusetts, obtained control of the patents of William Kelly, credited in Europe to Henry Bessemer.

Edward Martell

After receiving his Ph. D., he became a group leader at the Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago and also took up a position at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Ephraim Porter Felt

Ephraim Porter Felt (7 January 1868 Salem - 14 December 1943) was an American entomologist who specialised in Diptera

Fishbone, Wishbone, Funnybone

Fishbone, Wishbone, Funnybone is an album by Massachusetts folk musician Zoë Lewis, released in 2001.

Flag of New England

In 1684, the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, though retaining the Cross of St George, changed to a green flag.

Frank B. Livingstone

Livingstone was born in Winchester, Massachusetts to Guy P. Livingstone and Margery Brown Livingstone.

Gerard C. Bond

He worked at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York as Head of the Deep-Sea Sample Repository, after teaching briefly at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and the University of California, Davis.

Giuseppina Morlacchi

The couple settled in a country estate in Lowell, Massachusetts with an additional home Leadville, Colorado, although she continued to perform, both with her husband in western dramas, and solo.

Goodell Glacier

It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names after Janice G. Goodell of the United States Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a support member of the Glacier Studies Project Team from the early 1990s onwards.

Hampden Bank

As of 2011, Hampden Bank has ten office locations in Springfield, Agawam, Longmeadow, West Springfield, Wilbraham, at Tower Square in Metro Center Springfield, and in Indian Orchard.

Hampden County Courthouse

Hampden County Courthouse is a historic courthouse on Elm Street in Springfield, Massachusetts designed by Henry Hobson Richardson.

Harold Dow Bugbee

Bugbee was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, to Charles H. Bugbee and the former Grace L. Dow.

Horace Gregory

Horace Gregory (April 10, 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – March 11, 1982 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts) was a prize-winning American poet, translator of classic poetry, literary critic and college professor.

Howard Petrie

When Howard was three years old his family moved to Concord, Massachusetts The Petries later lived in Arlington, Massachusetts and then Somerville, Massachusetts, where Howard Petrie received his secondary school education.

Jack Le Goff

After retiring as the American coach, he spent five years in Hamilton, Massachusetts as the Director of the United States Equestrian Team (USET) Training Center.

James Dobb

Whilst not winning any major titles, he was one of the series' top riders, winning an AMA National at Southwick.

James William Greig

Greig married Jeannie Taylor, daughter of Captain Edward Brown from Salem, Massachusetts.

Joaquín Nin-Culmell

He taught at Middlebury College, Vermont for two years before joining the music department of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts (where Stephen Sondheim was one of his students).

Joe Cronin

Cronin died at the age of 77 on September 7, 1984, in Osterville, Massachusetts, and is buried in St. Francis Xavier Cemetery in nearby Centerville.

Johnny Kelley

In 1993, a statue of Kelley to commemorate him was erected near the City Hall of Newton, Massachusetts, on the Boston Marathon course, one hill and about one mile prior to the foot of Heartbreak Hill.

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld

They lived in Winchester, Massachusetts, while Lilienfeld was director of the Ergon Research Laboratories in Malden, Massachusetts.

Kanton Island

Three of the survivors, including Capt. Wing and Thomas E. Braley settled in Acushnet, Massachusetts.

Kenneth W. Rendell

Another of Rendell's interests is the American West, and in 2004–5 the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, Massachusetts, mounted an exhibition of letters, diaries, artifacts and art from his collection, acquired over decades.

Larinda

It was moved from its home to the launching point in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Laurel Hill Association

Founded in 1853 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, it has played a key role in the beautification of the town.

Lenox Dale, Massachusetts

There is also a marble quarry on the border with the town of Washington.

Leonard D. White

White was born in Acton, Massachusetts to John Sidney White and Bertha H. (Dupee) White.

Linwood Clark

He graduated from Milton Academy of Milton, Massachusetts, in 1899, from the American University of Harriman in Harriman, Tennessee, in 1902, and from the law department of the University of Maryland in 1904.

Long-tailed shrew

In Massachusetts, the long-tailed shrew is only found in Berkshire County.

Lowell Junction

Lowell Junction is a railroad junction located in Andover, Massachusetts, about one mile south of the village of Ballardvale.

Manhattan Board of Coroners

In 1914 Israel L. Feinberg, President of the Manhattan Board of Coroners, suggested switching to a medical examiner style office like the one used in Massachusetts.

Maria Altmann

Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the United States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts, and eventually in Los Angeles, California.

Massachusetts Route 101

From Templeton, Route 101 enters the city of Gardner, acting as one of the main streets through town.

Massachusetts Route 127

North Shore Route 127 in Beverly was named as one of the 1,000 places to visit in Massachusetts by the Great Places in Massachusetts Commission.

Massachusetts Route 133

Route 133 begins at the junction of Route 38 and Route 110 in Lowell, where Route 110 begins a concurrency with Route 38 northbound.

Massachusetts's 8th congressional district special election, 1820

Although a majority was achieved on the first ballot, a second election was ordered due to the fact that elections had not been held in the town of Hanson

Matthew A. Reynolds

He graduated from Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts and received his B.S.F.S. degree and the Dean's Citation from the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Merchant W. Huxford

He was born in Conway, Massachusetts and later moved to St. Marys, Ohio before finally settling permanently in Fort Wayne.

Merrimac Square

Merrimac Square is located in the center of the town of Merrimac, Massachusetts.

Morrison I. Swift

Morrison I. Swift retired to Newton Centre, Massachusetts where he boarded in the home of a music teacher and author.

Nabnasset, Massachusetts

Nabnasset is a village located in the northeastern portion of Westford, Massachusetts, between North Chelmsford, Dunstable, Graniteville and Westford Center.

New England Southern Railroad

It is currently on delivery to NEGS and as of June 15 was in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

Osee M. Hall

Born in Conneaut, Ohio, he attended the local public schools and graduated from Hiram College in Ohio and from Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1868.

Patricia Courtney

Born in Everett, Massachusetts, Pat Courtney graduated from Everett High School, where she excelled in sports.

Patrick Tracy Jackson

He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Jonathan Jackson and his second wife, Hannah Tracy Jackson.

Paul C. Borgman

Paul Carlton Borgman (born 1940) is an author of religious works and professor of English at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.

Paul Harney

As his competitive playing days were winding down, Harney used his prize money to open his own course in East Falmouth, Massachusetts, which he owned until his death.

Pentucket Regional High School

The school's main rival is Triton Regional High School of nearby Byfield, against whom Pentucket plays football on Thanksgiving Day.

Peterboro Basket Company

The company's history dates to 1841, when Amzi Childs came to Peterborough from Deerfield, Massachusetts to work on the manufacture of lead pipe.

Plymouth Concord

Two of Plymouth's model lines in the 1950s were named after towns in Massachusetts: Cambridge and Concord.

Punchbowl.com

Punchbowl.com is a free web-based party planning service and digital greeting cards site based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Robin Lane

Since then, Lane has moved to western Massachusetts, where she works with the Turners Falls, Massachusetts Women's Resource Center, using music therapy to aid survivors of abuse.

Ruth Langland Holberg

They moved to Rockport, Massachusetts, where Ruth wrote children's books and Richard illustrated them.

Sagamore Train Station

The former Sagamore Train Station was located on Freight House Road in Sagamore, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

Samuel McClellan

He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, married Rachel Abbe (a descendant of Plymouth, Massachusetts Governor, William Bradford) on March 5, 1766, and is buried in Woodstock, Connecticut.

Sante Graziani

From 1951 to 1981, Graziani was at the School of the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he taught and was also Dean.

Sarah Fuller

She was born in Weston, Massachusetts to Harvey and Celynda (Fiske) Fuller, and was educated at Allan English and Classical School, located in West Newton.

Scott Savastano

Scott Allen Savastano (born June 12, 1986 in Plymouth, Massachusetts) is an American professional baseball player in the Baltimore Orioles minor league organization.

Selman Waksman

Selman Waksman died on August 16, 1973 and was interred at the Crowell Cemetery in Woods Hole, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.

Seth Berry

He attended high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, during which time he interned in the Washington, D.C., congressional office for Maine's District 1 representative, John R. McKernan, Jr..

Stoughton Musical Society

From the inspiration of a singing school given in Stoughton in 1774 by Boston composer, William Billings, a group of male singers in town decided to form a singing society.

Street in Venice

Oil on canvas, 46 cm × 37.5 cm, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown

Susan Tucker

Tucker served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1982 to 1992, in the Senate from 1999 to 2011, representing the district of Second Essex and Middlesex which includes Lawrence and Andover in Essex County and Dracut and Tewksbury in Middlesex County.

Thomas Oliver Selfridge

Rear Admiral Selfridge died in Waverly (now part of Belmont, Massachusetts).

Thorvald Solberg

Thorvald Solberg was married to Mary Adelaide Nourse of Lynn, Massachusetts.

Tony Tulathimutte

Raised in South Hadley, Massachusetts, he is currently a times square mascot, and formerly worked as a writer and researcher on user experience topics.

U Pandita

U Pandita became well known in the West after conducting a retreat in the spring of 1984 at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts in the United States.

U.S. Route 6 in Indiana

U.S. Route 6 (US 6) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway that runs from California to Provincetown, Massachusetts.

UConn–UMass football rivalry

The first game played between the two schools took place on November 6, 1897, in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Van Sweringen brothers

While Shaker Heights rose to join the ranks of Beverly Hills and Wellesley, Massachusetts, the rail empire suffered financial difficulties.

ViziApps

The online ViziApps Studio is provided by ViziApps, Inc. based in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Voice of the Faithful

VOTF began when a small group of parishioners met in the basement of St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley, Massachusetts, to pray over allegations that a priest had abused local youngsters.

Wilder Street Historic District

Wilder Street Historic District is a historic district at 284-360 Wilder Street in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Willie Andrews

On June 30, 2008, Andrews was arrested at his home in Mansfield, Massachusetts and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm when police responded to a call that Andrews allegedly pointed a handgun at his girlfriend's head during an argument.

Zeno Scudder

He was admitted to the Bar in 1856 and conducted a lucrative practice in Barnstable, Massachusetts.


1996 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament

Future NBA players Marcus Camby (Massachusetts), Marc Jackson (Temple), and Tyson Wheeler (Rhode Island) were among those also named to the All-Championship Team.

Aldgate

In 1773 Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, the first book by an African American was published in Aldgate after her owners could not find a publisher in Boston, Massachusetts.

Alexander Gerschenkron

Alexander Gerschenkron (in Russian Александр Гершенкрон, * 1904 in Odessa, Russian Empire, now Ukraine, † 26 October 1978 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a Russian-born American Jewish economic historian and professor in Harvard, trained in the Austrian School of economics.

Annite

Annite was first described in 1868 for the first noted occurrence in Cape Ann, Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts, US.

Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad

The city of Ames was chartered in 1864 for the railroad and was named by CR&M President John Blair for Massachusetts Congressman Oakes Ames.

Celtic Ash

On the advice of Irish-born trainer Tom Barry, Celtic Ash was purchased by Boston, Massachusetts banker Joseph E. O'Connell, who imported him to the United States to race for his Green Dunes Farm.

Charles Ingersoll

Charles Fortescue Ingersoll (1791–1832), Massachusetts-born Canadian businessman and political figure who served in War of 1812 and represented Oxford County in Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada from 1824 until his death from cholera

Christopher Wilkins

Wilkins was born in Boston, Massachusetts where by 1978 he obtained bachelor's degree from Harvard College He studied with German-born conductor named Otto-Werner Mueller while being enrolled into Yale University and got his Master of Music degree from there by 1981.

Committee of Five

On June 11, the members of the Committee of Five were appointed; they were: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

Cotton Tufts

Cotton Tufts (born in Medford, Massachusetts, 30 May 1734; died in Weymouth, Massachusetts, 8 December 1815) was a Massachusetts physician.

David Germain

After leaving Shadows Fall in 2001, Germain joined Boston, Massachusetts based punk/ska band Jaya the Cat, who have recorded three studio albums (Basement Style, First Beer of a New Day and the latest, More Late Night Transmissions) as well as performing on the live album Ernesto's Burning.

East Mountain

East Mountain, part of the southern Green Mountains located in Clarksburg, Massachusetts and traversed by the Appalachian Trail

Edward Little

Edward P. Little (1791–1875), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts

Edward Teshmaker Busk

Hunsaker, Jerome C. Dynamical Stability of Aeroplanes, U. S. Navy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ephraim Hammond House

Cedar Hill, the estate which it is a part of, has been in the hands of the Massachusetts council of the Girl Scouts of the USA since the early 20th century.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929) was an American Unitarian minister who served congregations in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and California and who wrote many significant hymns.

George Bachrach

In 1998, he again sought the Democratic nomination for the 8th District seat in the United States House of Representatives but finished third in the primary, losing to Mike Capuano, who later won the seat.

George Churchill

George B. Churchill (1866–1925), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts

Greens/Green Party USA

The Clearinghouse has operated from various locations, including (originally) Kansas City, Missouri; Blodgett Mills, New York; Lawrence, Massachusetts; and Chicago, Illinois.

Harold M. Westergaard

Harold Malcolm Westergaard (9 October 1888 Copenhagen, Denmark – 22 June 1950 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA).

Haverhill Gazette

The Haverhill Gazette (est.1821) is a weekly newspaper in Massachusetts, owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. of Montgomery, Alabama.

Henry Perky

The biscuits proved more popular than the machines, so Perky moved East and opened his first bakery in Boston, Massachusetts and then in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1895, retaining the name of The Cereal Machine Company, and adding the name of the Shredded Wheat Company.

John Denison

John A. Denison, American Politician of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1875-1948

Lorena, Texas

As she called for the election of Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts and then U.S. Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen of Texas as President and Vice President of the United States, Richards read a letter from an unnamed young mother in Lorena who described herself as "forgotten" by the national leadership.

Mechanics Arts High School

John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics & Science in Boston, Massachusetts, originally named "Mechanic Arts High School"

Michał Zadara

After two years of study, he took a leave of absence from Swarthmore, and studied directing at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, and then oceanography at Sea Education Association in Massachusetts.

Minear

Richard Minear, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mini-Tuesday

The Democratic primaries and caucuses were contested between retired General Wesley Clark of Arkansas, former Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, and the Reverend Al Sharpton of New York.

Navid

Naveed Nour, an international artist and photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts

Paper cup

Dixie Cup is the brand name for a line of disposable paper cups that were first developed in the United States in 1907 by Lawrence Luellen, a lawyer in Boston, Massachusetts, who was concerned about germs being spread by people sharing glasses or dippers at public supplies of drinking water.

Phil Brooks

Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the early 1890s

Piotr Gajewski

Upon completing his formal education, Gajewski continued refining his conducting skills at the 1983 Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, where he was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Conducting Fellowship and where his teachers included Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Gunther Schuller, Gustav Meier and Maurice Abravanel.

Sanborn House

Rev. Peter Sanborn House, Reading, MA, listed on the NRHP in Massachusetts

Sara Moulton

She began working in restaurants immediately, first in Boston, Massachusetts, and then in New York City, taking off time only for a postgraduate apprenticeship with Master Chef Maurice Cazalis of the Henri IV Restaurant in Chartres, France, in 1979.

Simeon Thayer

Soon after, he joined Colonel Fry's Massachusetts regiment and served in Rogers' Rangers during three separate clashes with French-allied Indians.

SMOC

South Middlesex Opportunities Council, a private social service group in Massachusetts.

Star Island

The Star Island conference center is owned and operated by the Star Island Corporation, a not-for-profit United States Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) membership organization incorporated in the state of Massachusetts.

The State of Massachusetts

"The State of Massachusetts" is a song about the effects of drugs on individuals and their families by the Dropkick Murphys and was released as the first single from the album The Meanest of Times.

Thin Man Theatre

It was founded by Nora Mally (Artistic Director) and Nikki Beck (Producing Director) in 2008 while they were working at New Century Theatre, an Actors' Equity Association company in Western Massachusetts.

Thomas McGee

Thomas W. McGee (1924–2012), speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Transportation in the Halifax Regional Municipality

It has been shelved by HRM staff and politicians, pending the provincial government's creation of a regional transportation planning authority, similar to what eastern Massachusetts did in the 1960s when MBTA was created.

United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts, 1790

Elections for the United States House of Representatives for the 2nd Congress were held in Massachusetts on October 4, 1790, with subsequent elections held in four districts due to a majority not being achieved on the first ballot.

Webster County, Georgia

The County is named for Daniel Webster, U.S. representative of New Hampshire and U.S. representative and U.S. senator of Massachusetts.

WGBH

WGBH-TV, a public television station based in Boston, Massachusetts

Winslow Sargeant

Sargeant's parents immigrated to the U.S. from Barbados and he grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, "one of Boston's mostly minority neighborhoods".

WRLM

WSNE-FM, a radio station (93.3 FM) licensed to Taunton, Massachusetts, United States, which used the call signs WRLM and WRLM-FM from 1966 until 1980

WTXX

WTXX-LP, a low-power television station (channel 34) licensed to Springfield, Massachusetts, United States