Blandford, MA

Blandford is a Hampden County town of 1,215 people in the 2020 census, spread across the eastern edge of the Berkshire Hills above the Westfield River valley. Scots-Irish settlers from Hopkinton established the first community in 1735, originally calling it Glasgow; the town took the name Blandford when it incorporated in 1741. The road through town later became the General Knox Trail, the route Henry Knox used to haul cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston during the Revolutionary War.

The hilltown economy began with livestock, dairy, farms, mills, tanneries, and small factories. In the nineteenth century the Boston and Albany Railroad connected Blandford to commerce and summer travelers, while cheese production became a major local business. The Porter Memorial Library, established in 1891, still stands among the town's recognizable institutions, and the White Church sits on the central hill. Blandford Ski Area operated from 1936 until 2020, adding a recreation chapter to the older farming and travel story. The town's elevations rise from streams toward wooded hilltops, with Route 23 and the old Knox route threading through the landscape.