The Two Brothers Rocks–Dudley Road Historic District encompasses a historically significant rural area of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

and Billerica, Massachusetts. The district covers of predominantly rural and residential property, along Dudley Street, a narrow, winding road that was laid out in colonial days. It also includes a significant amount of conservation land, including local, state, and federal lands. The federal lands of the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge which line the banks of the Concord River, include the "Two Brothers Rocks", which were used to mark a land boundary between grants given to early Massachusetts Bay Colony governors

John Winthrop John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...

and

Thomas Dudley Thomas Dudley (12 October 157631 July 1653) was a New England colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the tow ...

, and which featured as boundary markers into the 20th century. The two large rocks were inscribed with the year 1638 and the names Dudley and Winthrop by a descendant of Dudley's named Dudley Leavitt Pickman, as noted in the Bedford Town Report in 1889. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2010. The Two Brothers Rocks are accessible either via watercraft on the Concord River, or by trails through Bedford's Altmann Conservation Area.

References

Image:Winthrop 1638 rock, Bedford MA.jpg, Image:Dudley 1638 rock, Bedford MA.jpg, Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bedford, Massachusetts Billerica, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{MiddlesexCountyMA-NRHP-stub

See also

References