Massachusetts Fun Facts
© Massachusetts Municipal Association, 2014
– Compiled by John Ouellette, Publications Editor & Web Director, MMA
HISTORY: Excavations in Massachusetts reveal that the earliest human inhabitants arrived about 3,000 years ago. European explorers began roving the coast as early as the 11th century. In 1497 and 1498, John Cabot carried through the explorations upon which England based its original claim to North America. In 1620, the Pilgrims, seeking religious freedom, made a brief stop in what later became Provincetown before settling in Plymouth on land belonging to Wampanoag Chief Massasoit. Massasoit ratified the first New England treaty between Europeans and Native Americans in December of 1620.
In 1629, a royal charter was granted to the Massachusetts Bay Company to promote the settlement of the territory and to govern the colonies. Various forms of increasingly repressive British rule culminated in the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775, at Lexington and Concord.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts became the sixth state to join the new independent union in 1788. It was the first state to write and adopt a constitution (1780), which served as a model for the U.S. Constitution. The Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest still in use in the world.
NAME: The state takes its name from the Massachuset tribe of Native Americans. The name has been translated as “at or about the Great Hill,” “great mountain place,” or “large hill place,” among other translations.
CAPITAL: Boston, established in 1630, has been the capital of Massachusetts since its founding. It is the largest city in New England.
STATE HOUSE: The central portion of the State House was designed by Charles Bulfinch (a former Boston selectman) and completed in 1798 after three years of construction. The dome was covered with copper by Paul Revere & Sons in 1802, and has been covered in 23-karat gold leaf since the 1870s. A yellow brick North Annex was added to the State House in 1895, and a marble wing was added to each side in 1917. The site of the building, near the summit of Beacon Hill, Boston’s highest ground, was formerly John Hancock’s cow pasture.
LEGISLATURE: 40-member Senate and 160-member House of Representatives.
MOTTO: Ense Petit Placidam Sub Libertate Quietem. Translation: By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Peace Only Under Liberty. The motto was written about 1659, and is attributed to English patriot Algernon Sydney.
STATE HEROINE: Deborah Samson, who assumed a male identity in order to fight in the Revolutionary War
STATE FLAG: A white rectangular field bears on either side a representation of the arms of the Commonwealth, except that the star is white. State law also prescribes a naval and maritime flag, which bears a pine tree rather than the state seal, and a governor’s flag, which is triangular.
STATE NICKNAMES: Bay State, Old Bay State, Pilgrim State, Puritan State, Old Colony State, Baked Bean State
STATE SYMBOLS:
Song: “All Hail to Massachusetts,” by Arthur J. Marsh (1981)
Poem: “The Blue Hills of Massachusetts,” by Katherine E. Mullen (1981)
Bird: Chickadee (1941)
Flower: Mayflower (1918)
Tree: American elm (1941)
Fish: Cod
The year in parentheses is when the item was designated a state symbol.
FAMOUS FIRSTS IN MASSACHUSETTS:
1621: First Thanksgiving, Plymouth
1634: First public park in America, Boston Common
1635: First American public secondary school, Boston Latin Grammar School
1636: First American university, Harvard, Cambridge
1638: First American printing press, Cambridge
1639: First free American public school, Boston
1650: First American ironworks, Saugus
1653: First American public library, Boston
1704: First regularly issued American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter
1716: First American lighthouse, Boston Harbor, Hull
1775: First battle of American Revolution, Lexington and Concord
1775: First commissioned ship of U.S. Navy, Beverly
1789: First American novel published, William Hill Brown’s “The Power of Sympathy,” Worcester
1826: First American railroad, Quincy
1831: First abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, Boston
1876: First telephone demonstrated by Alexander Graham Bell, Boston
1891: First basketball game, Springfield
1892: First gasoline-powered automobile, Springfield
1898: First American subway system, Boston
1926: First liquid fuel rocket, launched by Dr. Robert Goddard, Auburn
1928: First computer, developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
POPULATION:
State: 6,547,629 (2010 U.S. Census)
Population rank: 14th of the 50 states
Population growth since 2000 Census: 198,532 (3.1 percent)
Rank of population growth rate among the 50 states (2000 to 2010): 43
10 largest communities (2012 estimates):
Boston: 636,479
Worcester: 182,669
Springfield: 153,552
Lowell: 108,522
Cambridge: 106,471
New Bedford: 94,929
Brockton: 94,094
Quincy: 93,027
Lynn: 91,253
Fall River: 88,945
10 smallest communities (2012 estimates):
Gosnold: 76
Monroe: 121
Mount Washington: 166
New Ashford: 227
Aquinnah: 319
Tyringham: 324
Hawley: 337
Rowe: 394
Tolland: 487
Alford: 492
Number of communities with populations of more than 40,000: 38
Number of communities with populations of less than 1,000: 27
Median community population: 10,304 (Maynard)
Note: Community population figures are between-Census estimates from the Department of Revenue
PER CAPITA INCOME: $35,206 (2011)
GEOGRAPHY:
Area: 8,257 square miles (ranking 45th of the 50 states)
Largest body of water: Quabbin Reservoir (39 square miles)
Longest river: Charles River (80 miles)
Highest elevation: Mount Greylock (3,491 feet)
Lowest elevation: Atlantic Ocean (sea level)
Shoreline: 192 miles (not including islands)
Average community land area: 22.33 square miles
Five largest communities (in square miles):
Plymouth: 97.57
Middleborough: 69.98
Dartmouth: 60.91
Barnstable: 60.17
Petersham: 54.27
Five smallest communities (in square miles):
Nahant: 1.04
Winthrop: 1.56
Chelsea: 1.86
Hull: 2.43
Swampscott: 3.08
MEDIAN RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TAX RATE: $15.42 (2014)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
Municipalities with a city form of government: 55
Municipalities with a town form of government: 296
Mayors: 46 (of which 3 are part of a mayor-manager form of government)
Manager-council form of government: 9
Town administrators: 156
Town managers: 69
Executive secretaries: 7
Other municipal administrator positions (administrative assistant, administrative coordinator, administrative officer, administrative secretary, chief administrative and financial officer, chief administrative officer, executive administrator, executive assistant, executive director, general manager, municipal administrator, municipal assistant, town coordinator): 19
Open town meetings: 260
Representative town meetings: 36
Three-member boards of selectmen: 154
Five-member boards of selectmen: 141
Seven-member boards of selectmen: 1
Note: Some communities with a city form of government still refer to themselves as a town. The above list of municipal positions reflects only the number of each title statewide; the duties of a particular position will vary from community to community.
COUNTIES: 14
SCHOOLS:
Statewide public school enrollment: 934,747 (2014)
Median public school enrollment: 1,641 (Sturbridge)
Five largest school districts:
Boston: 61,911
Springfield: 28,434
Worcester: 26,729
Brockton: 17,841
Lowell: 16,199
Note: Public school enrollment figures represent the number of “school- attending children,” which includes residents attending any public school, including academic regional schools, vocational/technical regional schools, collaboratives and out-of-district public schools.
SOURCES
• State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols: A Historical Guide, by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer, 1985, Greenwood Press
• “The Massachusetts State House” and “The Arms and Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” published by the Office of Secretary of State
• Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services Municipal Data Bank
• U.S. Census Bureau
• The Citizen Information Service of the Office of Secretary of State
• Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
• Municipal clerks in each community in the Commonwealth