This is an incomplete list of

ghost towns A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

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 ...

. Ghost towns can include sites in various states of disrepair and abandonment. Some sites no longer have any trace of civilization and have reverted to pasture land or empty fields. Other sites are unpopulated but still have standing buildings. Some sites may even have a sizable, though small population, but there are far fewer citizens than in its grander historic past.

Classification

Barren site

* Sites no longer in existence * Sites that have been destroyed * Covered with water * Reverted to pasture * May have a few difficult to find foundations/footings at most

Neglected site

* Only rubble left * All buildings uninhabited * Roofless building ruins * Some buildings or houses still standing, but majority are roofless

Abandoned site

* Building or houses still standing * Buildings and houses all abandoned * No population, except caretaker * Site no longer in existence except for one or two buildings, for example old church, grocery store

Semi-abandoned site

* Building or houses still standing * Buildings and houses largely abandoned * Few residents * Many abandoned buildings * Small population

Historic community

* Building or houses still standing * Still a busy community * Smaller than its boom years * Population has decreased dramatically, to one fifth or less.

List by county

Barnstable County

* Long Point, also known as Provincetown, was built on a narrow and isolated

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

on the far end of

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

, and the isolated geography cut the town off from access to

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

and made it extremely vulnerable to ocean storms. * Whitewash Village

Berkshire County Berkshire County (pronounced ) is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded in 17 ...

Questing Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art, and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs ...

Bristol County

* Norton Furnace

Essex County

Dogtown Dogtown or Dog Town may refer to: Entertainment * ''Dogtown'' (film), a 1997 film * ''Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town'', a 2009 book by Elyssa East * "Dogtown" (''The Simpsons''), a 2017 season episode * '' DogTown'', ...

Franklin County

Catamount The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Station, an Australian base and research outpost in the Vestfold Hills * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Sa ...

* Hillsboro

Hampshire County

* Enfield, which was submerged to form

Quabbin Reservoir The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, United States, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, to the east, and 40 other cities and ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

, which was submerged to form Quabbin Reservoir *

Prescott Prescott may refer to: People Given name * Prescott E. Bloom, American lawyer and politician * Prescott Bush, American banker and politician * Samuel Prescott Bush, American industrialist * Prescott F. Hall, American lawyer, author and eugenicist ...

, which was submerged to form Quabbin Reservoir

Middlesex County

Haywardville In the early 1800s, Nathaniel Hayward bought remodeled shoe mills in Stoneham, Massachusetts from Elisha Converse, founder of the largest rubber shoe manufacturer in the world, the Boston Rubber Shoe Company in Malden. Straddling Spot Pond Bro ...

, a mill town established in the mid-19th century. By 1870 it was deep in decline. In 1894 it was turned into a park and would become

Middlesex Fells Reservation Middlesex Fells Reservation, often referred to simply as the Fells, is a public recreation area covering more than in Malden, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and Winchester, Massachusetts, United States. The state park surrounds two inactive ...

Worcester County

* Dana, submerged to form Quabbin Reservoir

Notes and references

{{Lists of ghost towns by U.S. state

Ghost towns A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Tourist attractions in Massachusetts