Stoneham, MA

Stoneham’s census-designated place covers 6.02 square miles and had 23,244 residents in 2020. It lies less than 10 miles northwest of Boston, and the town describes about one-third of the community as part of Middlesex Fells Reservation, including Spot Pond. Farmers settled the area, then called Charlestown End, in 1645; it became a separate township on December 17, 1725. A Medford–Andover road built in 1806 shifted the center toward present-day Main Street as shoe production began supplementing agriculture. The Old Burying Ground, established in 1726 at the former center, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains about 348 headstones.