The 1767 Milestones are historic

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway, railway line, canal or border, boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks like Mileage sign, mileage signs; or they c ...

s located along the route of the Upper Boston Post Road between the cities of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and Springfield in

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The 40 surviving milestones were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1971. Massachusetts has a total of 129 surviving milestones including those along the upper Post Road. The stones are so named, despite having been placed in many different years, because of a 1767 directive of the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

that such stones be placed along major roadways. The state highway department was directed in 1960 to undertake their preservation. Many of them underwent a major restoration in 2018. The first stone was erected by Paul Dudley, one of the prominent citizens of early 18th century Massachusetts, in Roxbury, which was at the time a separate community. Roxbury was located at the end of the

Boston Neck The Boston Neck or Roxbury Neck was a narrow strip of land connecting the then-peninsular city of Boston to the mainland city of Roxbury (now a neighborhood of Boston). The surrounding area was gradually filled in as the city of Boston expan ...

, a narrow

isthmus An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea count ...

separating the mainland from the Shawmut Peninsula, where Boston was located. Travelers going by land from Boston to other areas had to travel over the neck and through Roxbury to reach their destinations. The Roxbury junction where Dudley placed the first stone was where several routes branched, heading south and west across New England. Dudley erected several stones along the road from Boston to Cambridge which wound its way from Beacon Hill along what is now Washington Street through the Dudley Square area to what is now Huntington Avenue, then along Harvard Street through Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner, and Allston crossing into Cambridge at the Great Bridge, where modern JFK Street in Cambridge becomes North Harvard Street in Allston. The stones that Dudley erected have the initials PD on them, usually at the bottom of the stone. The most chatty of these milestones (not part of this collection), is inscribed P Dudley rather than PD, and is located on the corner of Centre and South Streets in

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood of in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Roxbury. The community seceded from Roxbur ...

. The stones listed for miles 23 through 29 in Wayland and Sudbury are actually guideposts rather than milestones, and do not list any mileage. They were erected at road intersections rather than at the mile marks. The stones are quarried granite posts with plug & feather tool marks and post-date 1800.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts Road transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places Individual signs on the National Register of Historic Places Individual signs in the United States Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Milestones

See also

References