The Historic Small Town That Every Massachusetts Native Should Visit At Least Once

There’s a beautiful small town in Massachusetts that offers natural beauty, friendly folk and a past that might make you do a double-take.

The town of Harvard, Massachusetts (not to be consumed with the famed university of the same name) is a small town of 6,520 in Worcester County. It’s about 25 miles outside of Boston and is one of the oldest communities in the state. It also has a pretty unique history.

Harvard has been home to not one, but two “utopian” communities.

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The Harvard Shakers were a religious community that separated from the town’s Protestant church in the 1760s. They built their own group home and founded the first Shaker community in Massachusetts and the second in America. The Shakers were a Christian sect known for their simple living, exuberant style of worship and total celibacy. Men and women were not even allowed to shake hands or pass each other on the stairs. Children were added to the Shaker community by adoption or conversion. Though the Harvard Shakers enjoyed a membership of about 200 in the 1850s, their community shrank to just about 40 by 1890. The Harvard Shaker Village had closed by 1917 and the only Shaker building open to the public today is the Fruitlands Museum.

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The other more radical community in Harvard was established in 1843 by the father of Louisa May Alcott, Amos Bronson Alcott. He and his friend Charles Lane attempted to found a utopian transcendentalist socialist farm called Fruitlands on the side of Prospect Hill. The community aimed to live entirely off the land and use nothing from the outside world. Though notables such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson spent time at Fruitlands and approved of the project, the community fell apart after just seven months.

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Today, Harvard is a lovely rural town that prides itself on its history. The community is now very prosperous and known for its stellar school system.

Visitors to Harvard can amuse themselves in countless ways. Experience the beauty of the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, ride the Nashua River Rail Trail or spend time relaxing at nearby picturesque Bowers Spring. Harvard is also home to Still RIver Winery, a fantastic day trip destination for wine-lovers.

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Harvard’s public library has been open since 1856, but the oldest business in town is actually the small general store. It’s been open since the 1800s and supplies locals with groceries, gifts and odds and ends.

Notable people from Harvard include Gary K. Wolf, creator of Roger Rabbit; Fannie Farmer, famed cookbook author; Louisa May Alcott, renowned novelist; and Donald Featherstone, creator of the pink flamingo lawn ornament.

Everyone should make time to explore this fascinating small town with beauty and charm to spare. For more small town inspiration, check out our list of the most beautiful spots in the state here.