Dedham, MA

Mother Brook, created in Dedham in 1639 to link the Charles and Neponset rivers, is identified as North America’s first man-made canal. Settled in 1635 and incorporated the next year, Dedham is now the Norfolk County seat on Boston’s southwestern border; 25,364 people lived there in 2020. The town established the country’s first tax-supported, free public school in 1643. The Fairbanks House, scientifically dated to 1637, is the oldest surviving timber-frame house in the United States. The 1921 Sacco and Vanzetti trial took place in the Norfolk County Courthouse. Dedham’s Town Forest is the nation’s only such forest located in a highway median.