List of municipalities in Massachusetts

Minor civil divisions or municipalities in the U.S. state of Massachusetts are classified as either towns or cities, distinguished by their form of government under state law. Towns have an open town meeting or representative town meeting form of government. Cities, on the other hand, utilize a mayor-council or council-manager form. Based on the form of government, there are 296 towns and 55 cities in Massachusetts. Some municipalities, however, still refer to themselves as "towns" even though they have a city form of government.

Maps of Massachusetts cities and towns

List of municipalities

Boston, Capital of Massachusetts

Brockton

Cambridge

Dudley

Gloucester

Haverhill

Lawrence

Lowell

Medford

New Bedford

Quincy

Springfield

Uxbridge

Winthrop

Worcester

List of cities by official name

The following tabular list shows the 55 government divisions of the Commonwealth which have been officially granted the right to use the city form of government along with the official name in use by each municipality.^{[Note 1]}

Geography of towns at formation

Formation of Massachusetts cities and towns, 1620–1870

This map shows towns colored by the date they were incorporated in Massachusetts since the founding of Plimoth Plantation in 1620. Many of the towns and future cities shown covering the area of their original incorporation have since been divided into two, three or in some cases several smaller municipalities. For example, Dorchester was incorporated in 1630 and originally included all of the current Dorchester, now the largest neighborhood of Boston, plus the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan, and all of present-day Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Canton, Sharon, Stoughton, Avon and the northeast portion of Foxboro. Nearly all of Massachusetts territory had been incorporated by 1815, with the final three areas of Erving (1838), Gay Head (now Aquinnah) and Mashpee (both 1870) being incorporated from previously Native American land.

Former municipalities

Some towns and cities were annexed to others; disincorporated; or ceded to another state in their entirety. This list does not include territory changes affecting only part of a municipality; see History of Massachusetts.

Annexations

The following formerly independent municipalities have been annexed to Boston:

• Brighton (1873)
• Charlestown (1873)
• Dorchester (1869)
• Hyde Park (1912)
• Roxbury (1867)
• West Roxbury (1873)

The town of Bradford was annexed to Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1895.

Disincorporations

The following towns were disincorporated in 1938 due to the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir; all their territory was absorbed into surrounding towns:

• Dana
• Enfield
• Greenwich
• Prescott

Cessions

The following towns were ceded to Rhode Island in 1747 as part of a border dispute:

• Barrington
• Bristol
• Little Compton
• Tiverton
• Warren (Sowams) [possibly part of Swansea, Massachusetts in 1747?]

The following towns joined the Connecticut Colony in the late 17th and early 18th Century after separating from Springfield or just joining Connecticut.

• Enfield
• Somers
• Suffield
• Woodstock

Also all settlements in the District of Maine were ceded when the state of Maine gained its independence from Massachusetts in 1820, and numerous towns were ceded to New Hampshire after the Northern boundary of Massachusetts was defined by royal decree.

Archaic names

Many municipalities have changed names.^[7]

See also

• Administrative divisions of Massachusetts
• Equivalent lands
• List of cities in the United States
• List of villages in Massachusetts
• Massachusetts gateway cities

Notes

References

External links

• Massachusetts City and Town Directory, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Elections Division

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