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Massachusetts Counties

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Massachusetts Counties

Massachusetts consists of the 14 counties. Massachusetts has abolished seven of its fourteen county governments, leaving five Counties with county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) and two, Nantucket County and Suffolk County, with combined county/city government.

Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Middlesex County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Cambridge
Year Organized: 1643
Square Miles: 824

Court House:

40 Thorndike Street

Cambridge, MA 02141-1715

Etymology - Origin of County Name

For the former English county of Middlesex

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires". Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading

Like an increasing number of Massachusetts counties, Middlesex County exists today only as a historical geographic region, and has no county government. All former county functions were assumed by state agencies in 1997

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 848 sq mi (2,195 km²). 823 sq mi (2,133 km²) of it is land and 24 sq mi (62 km² ) of it (2.84%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Essex County
Southeast: Suffolk County; Norfolk County
Southwest: Worcester County
Northwest: Hillsborough County, N.H.

Cities and Towns:

- Acton	town
- Arlington	town
- Ashby	town
- Ashland	town
- Ayer	town
- Bedford	town
- Belmont	town
- Billerica	town
- Boston	city	Incorporated Area
- Boxborough	town
- Burlington	town
- Cambridge (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Carlisle	town
- Chelmsford	town
- Concord	town
- Dracut	town
- Dunstable	town
- Everett	city	Incorporated Area
- Framingham	town
- Groton	town
- Holliston	town
- Hopkinton	town
- Hudson	town
- Lexington	town
- Lincoln	town
- Littleton	town
- Lowell	city	Incorporated Area
- Malden	city	Incorporated Area
- Marlborough	city	Incorporated Area
- Maynard	town
- Medford	city	Incorporated Area
- Melrose	city	Incorporated Area
- Natick	town
- Newton	city	Incorporated Area
- North Reading	town
- Pepperell	town
- Reading	town
- Sherborn	town
- Shirley	town
- Somerville	city	Incorporated Area
- Stoneham	town
- Stow	town
- Sudbury	town
- Tewksbury	town
- Townsend	town
- Tyngsborough	town
- Wakefield	town
- Waltham	city	Incorporated Area
- Watertown	city	Incorporated Area
- Wayland	town
- Westford	town
- Weston	town
- Wilmington	town
- Winchester	town
- Woburn	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."